Anna Cabe: Diptych for Women of Color
diptych for women of color
for Abby, Anushka, and Sarah and after Lenore Chinn
i. ii.
they say carry us
they say you’re ugly
they say you’re beautiful
they say you’re too quiet
they say you’re too loud
they say clean this
they say cook this
they say buy this
they say your food/clothes/accent/eyes/hair/skin is funny
they say where is it most authentic
they say stand up for yourself
they say why are you so angry
they say i didn’t recognize you—
they say i thought you were someone else—
they say go home
they say stop
they say you’re too too much—
they say and say and say and say and say— we say no
Anna Cabe is an MFA candidate in fiction at Indiana University and the nonfiction editor of Indiana Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Bitch, The Toast, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, SmokeLong Quarterly, Joyland, Cleaver, Expanded Horizons, Noble/Gas Qtrly, and Split Lip Magazine, among others. She was a 2015 Kore Press Short Fiction Award semifinalist, a finalist for Midwestern Gothic’s Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Series, and a finalist for the 2015 Boulevard Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers. You can find Anna at annacabe.com.