I’m outside with the dog

while you’re browsing

the asian food deli.

two tall skinny white guys

with young chinese girlfriends

walk in while I wait

and duck back from

my eye-contact – babe,

we are comfortably run-

of-the-mill. a friend of an ex

of mine once told me that this

was the modern colonial mindset.

of course I made fun of him –

“they’re taking our women!”

but I think he was making a point.

it’s a strange thing to feel

you must tell someone, but your race

isn’t one of the reasons I love you.

at the wedding I was challenged

to make up a poem

in tribute to you on the spot.

don’t remember what I said

but it wasn’t very good. just

something about how

you’re smarter than I am – listen,

your family was there. I was stupid

in kuala lumpur heat. still though –

I once lived in chinatown, back in toronto,

and developed a taste for fried noodles.

and your noodles are so good with ground-

up black garlic and various shellfish

and two kinds of salt. that’s

why I married you: noodles

and also you’re smart.

----------------------------------------

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent". His work has nominated twelve times for Best of the Net, eight for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize, and has been released in three collections; "Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden" (Encircle Press, 2016), "Sad Havoc Among the Birds" (Turas Press, 2019) and “Noble Rot” (Turas Press, 2022).