Three Poems – Chris Lee-Rodriguez

Typecasting

In the theater called first impressions, 
Brown nerd plays center stage for all three acts:
Act confident in place of awkward.
Act choleric as disguise for despair.
Act courageous subbing for cowardice.

Label him method actor. Label him
Boy who lives with brown skin as lightning bolt.
Boy, be not as pretender but as actor 
Playing the role they think is best fit.
Brown nerd has no lines in any dialogue,
But his inner monologue has lines like:

“Hey, yo conscious! Where’s the self at? Yo love!
Where’s the self at? Yo self! Where’s the ishness
At? I’ve got so many questions waiting
To be answered, and I’m not really sure
How much longer I can keep this act up.”