I want to ask you 

if there is some connection 

between the religious pendant on your wrist

and the dark skin that it halos.

I want to ask you

if you can feel the collective sigh

of students who never thought astronomy

could sound so smooth

when explained through cuts

and shining glimpses

of curiously curled r's 

and abrupt vowels.

I want to ask you where you are from

because you are beautiful

and I am curious beyond my priveliged ignorance.

How deeply do the puzzled pale faces,

does the the eye contact

fleeting,

do their tight jaws

alter your never ending smile?

When you return home at night,

does your mirror

sing back your tan glow,

or cry out the day's judgements of it?

Tell me where you are from

because I'm not asking

to blind myself of our differneces,

but to understand them

from someone who has chosen 

to teach,

when I am so unlearned of the world.