I First Dated a Boy Who
Was four years older
And not a virgin
And whose kisses were wet
And fingers strong.
He called me on the phone
With the cord I twirled around
My own fingers, but
I was in the shower
Because in a house where shoes are left at the door,
You rinse off the day before you sleep
in the bed that was worked for, just for you.
My hair still wet,
My mother came to me.
He talk too sweet,
She said. Her brow
Was furrowed but
The corners of her mouth
Were smiling.
I Dated Another Guy Who
Announced that his bucket list included
2) Date an Asian girl
14) Date a white girl
Isn’t she the best of both worlds?
His friend asked, hitchhiking
His thumb at me.
My guy crinkled his nose
And shook his head
No.
Jade Hidle (she/her/hers) is the proud Vietnamese-Irish-Norwegian daughter of a refugee. Her travel memoir, The Return to Viet Nam, was published by Transcurrent Press in 2016, and her work has also been featured in Michigan Quarterly Review: Mixtape, Southern Humanities Review, Poetry Northwest, Witness Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, The West Trade Review, Bangalore Review, Columbia Journal, New Delta Review, and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network’s diacritics.org. You can follow her work at www.jadehidle.com or on Instagram @jadethidle.