The Phenomenology Of Other

“There was a Mexican flag flowing over the American town.”
                                        from Tambien
                                        by Sheryl Luna

Being inside of someone who hates you
can be so enlightening,

looking out from my blue eyes
and blonde hair I machete

the Mexican men who shop at Walmart in groups
and I wonder why Immigration

can’t figure it out.
I shop at Fiesta Super Market,

whole families monkey-chatter in Spanish
and look at me as if I’m out of place

and you can see they despise me
for being in their world.

I go home to Westlake Hills, set my security alarm,
goggle “ Who the fuck

are these brown people who hate me?”
I make up my mind to hate them back.