Stereotypically, like an Arab

No, I don't wear a turban. No one in the Middle East wears a turban. Middle Easterners don't wear turbans. No one is an infidel. You are not an infidel, I'm not an infidel.

Cashiers think I can't speak English. If they ask a question, they fear I will respond in short cut syllables that don't form into a word, or a sentence. They give me this funny look, as if....

I no can speak le English. 

Behind me, in a perfect, clear accent, my mother goes, "Slide?" and the soul at the register dies for a minute, while my mother patiently waits, because she forgot that, since I not speaking good English, 

Neither can my mother. When the cashier's tongue comes back, 

It gets stuck, because, like many, this cashier believed

that I was not American. He probably forgot,

that that day,

I was rocking red, white, and blue, 

with my keys in my jeans and my key chain low, 

with a thumb ring, or two, and

totally forgetting that I was American for a second, spoke to my mother

in Arabic, totally forgetting that there was a stereotype that I was smacked with, 

One I forgot to obey, and knew  I forgot, because the look on the cashier's face when I said

"Have a nice day!" would burst me in laughter, in almost tears, and when my mother was laughing alongside, the cahsier smiled nervously, 

As if we were infidels. Or terrorists, or something like that, because he didn't know that I was an Arab, and I spoke Arabic, and I'm a full American born, an American, and have no accent whatsoever, 

So when I come home, put my things away and sit down to write, I remember that I write

for moments like these - to break the stereotypes, and erase the lines, 

You know,

the ones that make politics divide?

Almost down the middle, mostly

Askewed by people like the cashier!

Who judged so quickly

No sentence, no jury

because he thought of me one thing

and I thought "YES, I AM GUILTY!"

Guilty, your honor, for being me 

For wearing glasses that makes my eyes look thick,

but helps me feel like me, 

For size ten shoes, and arms nearly twice "the normal size", 

For going to school in jeans and a shirt, heh heh "HI!"

For going to the store, and my mom ready to pay

With a credit card.