WHITE HIRING MANAGER
So, tell me, do you speak any languages?
YOU
The language I’m speaking.
WHITE HIRING MANAGER
(Laughs nervously)
Any other languages?
(YOU sling your Neanderthal
Spanish. The weight of its awfulness
bounces off the wall, whacks YOU
in the face, splits your lower lip.)
YOU
(Under breath)
I should’ve flossed my double
negatives, talked about the weather
in Pig Latin.
(Of all the trapdoors YOU’ve walked through
this the first where a banana skirt
awaits your tongue.)
WHITE HIRING MANAGER
(Laughs assuredly)
Oh Cinnamon. Oh Coco. This
is how you land a job. Kill
that afro. Then pad your bra
with the hair.
Amber Atiya is the author of the chapbook the fierce bums of doo-wop (Argos Books, 2014). Her work has appeared in Black Renaissance Noire, Bone Bouquet, Boston Review, Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, and elsewhere. A proud native Brooklynite, she is a member of a women's writing group that will be celebrating 13 years this spring.