To Make a Dish Hawaiian Just Add Pineapple
|
|
Excuse me miss |
|
Maybe it’s the dim lighting |
|
|
|
but what is your ethnicity |
|
or the aroma of spices |
|
|
|
because you’re too beautiful |
|
but a funny thing happens |
|
|
|
to be Native American |
|
when I wait tables |
|
|
|
and you’re too beautiful to be Mexican. |
A pluot
is a hybrid plum apricot
Here are your wasabi mashed potatoes
I knew it!
and Sambal hot wings.
You know what, sir?
That you’re smart! You’re smart because you’re Jewish!
What are you saying about Filipinos?
You’re just enough Asian to be pretty.
Teriyaki Beurre Blanc?
Kaya Crème Brule?
California Roll?
How can you say you are “half” Jewish?
How can you order your pizza half mushroom half pepperoni?
I won third place in the county fair once
for my cookies I call
Aloha Oy Vey:
Mandelbrot made with coconut and macadamia nuts.
Would you like a refill of your Diet Coke?
Yeah, and no hielo this time.
Excuse me, sir?
Are you even Hispanic?
A neighbor had three pet Corgis named:
Enchilada, Eggroll, and Éclair
Often thought of as “young broccoli”
Broccolini is a hybrid of broccoli and kai-lan
(Chinese Broccoli) created in 1993 by Sakata
Seed Company in Yokohama, Japan.
Also known as:
aspabroc, aspiration,
bimi, broccoletti, and
tenderstem.
In my professional opinion as an artist,
even though you are not Native American,
you should pose as one for western paintings.
Polenta is not grits is not Cream of Wheat.
Mexicali, Mexico has over 200 Chinese restaurants
known to serve cilantro in the eggrolls
and avocado in the fried rice.
Do you have any questions about the menu?
No, but where are your grandparents from?
Here.
About the Author Leah Shlachter is a Kundiman Fellow and holds an MFA from Pacific University. Her poems have been published in Talking Writing, Black Lawrence Press and Bamboo Ridge. She grew up in Laie, Hawaii and graduated from Kahuku High School. She lives in Jackson, Wyoming.
This poem was selected as the winner of the 2017 Ian MacMillan Writing Contest.
“Thanks to all the poets who submitted to the Ian MacMillan Poetry Contest this year. There were many worthy poems, but I have chosen “To Make a Dish Hawaiian Just Add Pineapple” to receive the prize. The speaker of this poem writes about being othered, exoticized, and demeaned for their mixed race identity and ethnically ambiguous appearance—an experience many people can relate to. I appreciate how this poem explores its theme through an innovative form: there are various voices, collaged text, and spatial arrangements. I also enjoy the emotional tones of the poem, as well as its use of food to symbolize hybridized identity. Overall, this poem was served with a spicy personality and a complex prosody.”
About the Artist Rebecca Pyle is both artist and writer. This summer she helped complete an almost endless gold-and-green mural full of Celtic knots and dragons on a stucco wall in Salt Lake City; many years ago she was a set painter for a theater company in Kansas. See artwork by Rebecca Pyle at rebeccapyleartist.wordpress.com.