Apologies, I forgot you exist (Fleur Beaupert)

On the verge of this sheer pink
dress fits my childhood fantasy

glass slipper | Inside it

I’m so brown I’m clear White gold
un dress | B(l)onded into celibacy

I’m so blonde I’m pure Blackness
so blue black invisible I explode

in a WHAM!

I’m so B(l)ond I’m action shot awe
mega secret gadget car chase galore

I’ll turn those Batwings you gave me
into | Angel | I am so food so smooth
so smoothie mmm so #street dope

You’d be cute in our commercial
but we can’t find a mum
of your shade of shade of shade

I’ll be your best friend bodyguard
Illegal Maid Refugee Gangsta
I’ll dance in the #toostreet boulevard

of Beatnik diversity | I could be a fairy

Princess from a parallel universe
Don’t PC me | I’m sorry sweet
Seeking: Preferably Blonde Fairies

I rehearse | I rehearse

#actressjustgratefultohaveajob

I’m dancing dancing dancing
in the #toostreet where I exist
as universal | Red Riding | I am

the hood | Your curved transversal
un dream | I resist your fantasy
that cannot transcend its own lack

of imagination | I am | I can | I exist |

The only barrier to me playing Ophelia
is the colour of your text | The texture
of your lie | The truth born of your

starvation | How you live and let die

Taste my skin golden brown and black
My Terrorist crown glinting, in epitaph
 

This poem was prompted by the comment that Idris Elba is ‘too street’ to play James Bond.


Fleur Beaupert is a Melbourne based poet. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in spaces such as aaduna, 404 Ink, Blue Pepper, Bimblebox 153 Birds, Regime and Cordite Poetry Review.