after dinner (2005)

after dinner
reflections on a couple dining in a thai restaurant

too brown not to love
in honor of memory
but too black to be a beautiful
paisley print queen

not ethereally ethnic
but decidedly so
and it excites and pains you all the more

i step out with a calling
dance in rivers
stand before giants
slaying them all

i bathe in daffodils
delight Delilah's daughter
with the desire's inspiration
then, I am
an earthen bowl filled with sun fed grapes
that were never raisins

i
run
my toes through oceans
step into the light
and become it
the craved image of my lineage
i never launched a 1000 ships
but brought each one home to a foreign land
their memory harbored safe in my breast
and yet

wanderlust lover,
it is never enough
for you.

no matter how coordinated our love
I'm just
the wrong shade of the rainbow
for your wardrobe to match

perhaps,
if i were...
tawny with tempest curls
a ruddy restless russet
a breathtaking beige
a butter pecan tan,
but i am

bittersweet brown
a magnificently coveted but avoided dessert
which is too rich for your palette
and you're too poor to afford

michelle milam