Mixed

The sun had been down for hours

The office empty since five

I was often the last one there

but I never did mind

I liked studying the sky

when the stars pierced the sky



After a long day

bleeding into the night

staring at a computer

mapping other worlds

I went out for a drink



Rathskeller

A lonely

underground

whiskey bar



The bartender was kind

She asked me what I’ll have to drink

“I’ll take my whiskey neat.”

She suggested a new one

It was so good

I don’t remember it



The bartender liked my conversation

so we chatted for a while

She had an British accent

but her skin was cocoa brown 

her hair long and black

her frame petite

her eyes deep

her lips juicy



I knew she wasn’t from around here

but she said she’s from Long Beach

I asked how she got her accent

She asked how I got mine

She said she was born in London

I said I was born in the Mojave 

 



I told her I was surprised

to hear her accent

because she looked mixed

She told me was Filipina and British

and was happy I noticed

She asked my ethnicity

“Well my job application classifies me as white.”

She laughed hysterically

She said she recognized

I was mixed too 



I raised an eyebrow

“You’re the first who ever knew.”

“Most people don’t have a clue.”



She asked

"So what are you?"



“I’m a lot of things.”

“I’m mostly German,

but take everything in Europe

and that's also me."

I thought it was beautiful

That I was seen beyond my skin

That I was seen for my culture, my cadence, and my characteristics

She was the first to recognize I'm mixed