Brown Girl Speaking/from a Vanilla Wafer
Location
Don't let the skin color fool you./I'm not who you think I am-/Nor who I ever pretended to be./My ancestors weren't cowboys./They were the fishermen/and weavers of a history/I never knew./And maybe I'll never know it./I'll never be the matriarch of a clan of little brown people./But never again/will I submit to being labeled/as just another 'white girl'./Don't let the skin color/or the name/or the lack of a coconut bra fool you/as I let it fool me./Don't let truth entice visions/of Pochahontas singing 'Ignorant Savage'-/Whatever it may mean/and whatever past I have yet to learn about/the blood my mother gave me/is Chamoro./You may clump it amongst others in that title-/'Pacific Islander'./Like you're trying to say my intelligence/and my heart does not extend beyond this ocean/you probably thought didn't even exist./But then again/you also thought I was one of them 'white girls'-/Didn't you?