Being Kosher Rican I relate from a plate of yellow rice and gefilte fish;

though I would be remiss if I did not admit that generally I eat more of the fish.

My yellow rice is not brazen- nor shriveled like a raisin- and is not something I wish to hide…

I just was not told – neither young or now old – what it is to have yellow rice inside

I cannot recall--in part or at all-- whatever was my parent’s marriage;

it was quite normal to me– Sundays were my father’s  you see – so I don’t carry that kind of baggage.

I’m not a Catholic nor am I Judaism emphatic and pious I’m not by far,

though I relate culturally I think we all can agree… I’m less comfortable in a synagogue than on Mars.

So what should I be? Because I can’t only be me, if I stay in the sun I’ll soon turn brown…

and my ritual circumcision was more than an incision and my nose I could never live down.

The place where I grew as the Puerto Rican Jew was a neighborhood where I was the token white.

Most of my friends were black but if I was attacked I developed a smart mouth to stay out of a fight.

When I went to learn often luck didn’t turn I could be a Puerto Rican in Jewish Day School

Melendez transforms to “Molester” and the Menedezes festered so I played the jester and fool.

I grew older quick though not as quick as I’d like to admit and had to come to terms alone; on my own.

I still can’t quite explain what it means to be twain but I’ll tell you that now I am grown.

My wife too could quip about how it’s hard to exist; her mix is a similar one

So together we plan how to make a man of our complicated mixed culture son.

In the end we decided that his questions are invited and we’ll answer the best that we can.

He’s Jewish and Filipino and Puerto Rican so we know that we can’t hardly have a plan

on how he’ll be perceived or what he will need in a world that wants him to decide.

But he’ll know it’s OK to be many and we’ll make him ready and tell him he’ll never have to hide.