<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 25px; ">“So…what are you?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p class="story-body-text" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4375rem; max-width: 540px; ">Lot’s of people ask when they first meet me.<br>“I mean, you got hair like sheepskin<br>eyes that could terrorize<br>skin like a supremacist<br>and a ghetto booty<br>sooo….what are you?”<br>And I tell them:<br>I am a breathing math equation</p><p class="story-body-text" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4375rem; max-width: 540px; ">SUBTRACTION<br>I am the difference<br>between a cornered woman<br>and her right to consent<br>I am what is left<br>After forced penetration<br>into fertile motherland<br>I am sweet yams dug from their beds<br>and replanted in a foreign climate</p><p class="story-body-text" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4375rem; max-width: 540px; ">MULTIPLICATION<br>I am the product<br>of variable factors<br>Algebraic solution<br>A substitution of cultures<br>I am teepee burned to the ground,<br>and log cabin built in its place</p><p class="story-body-text" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4375rem; max-width: 540px; ">DIVISION<br>I am a mixed<br>number, a percentage<br>of a people, I am a fraction<br>of a stereotype<br>My blood is a canal<br>running between two cities<br>and I am the bridge<br>that few from either side<br>dare to cross</p><p class="story-body-text" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4375rem; max-width: 540px; ">ADDITION<br>I am the sum of two positive integers<br>unshackled from a negative history<br>Their hands outstretched<br>from opposite sides of a chasm<br>split by burning crosses and swastikas<br>I am born from the embrace<br>of two horizontal bodies<br>who believe fear is the only problem<br>worth solving<br>You ask, what am I?<br>I am one plus one equals one</p><p class="story-body-text" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4375rem; max-width: 540px; ">I am both sides of a full moon<br>A human equinox<br>The changing of seasons<br>My home is the quiet moment<br>between dusk and dawn–<br>the end of one day.<br>The beginning of the next.</p><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> - Kristine Hadeed </span></div><div style="font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><em><br></em></div></span></body></html>