Here is a beautiful submission from my twitter friend Lori (@LDNMisBanderas)

buen provecho….

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Yo También

In response to Langston Hughes’s “I, Too, Sing America”^*

I, too am Dominican.

They ask me to go into the kitchen

to help Tía Rosa peel plátanos

and they laugh when half the plátano

comes off with the skin

and they say

that’s not a banana you know. 

Tia Rosa is four foot nine

and stands as high as my eyeballs

and wields a paring knife

and tells them

cállense you idiots

she can be Dominican if she wants. 

They warn me

quítate del sol

and try to hand me a parasol

and laugh again

when I say I want to get

as dark as chocolate sin azúcar Tía Rosa

whose grandson asks me

if I bathe in Clorox

to take away the color. 

They all know I would rather

eat in the kitchen

among the cinnamon-skinned

than in the reception hall

among the pallid guests.

Yo también soy dominicana.