Kabangka
Original version of Kabangka written at “Poetry is our second language”
When we stand at the edge of the universe
and feel the star dust
ebb and flow between our toes
We, the Filipinos,
Brace our shoulders against celestial wind
Our bodies are darkened by millions of kisses from the galaxy
While our fingers comb through
Hair, thick and wavy washed in rivers of stars
From a top our island home we
glance down at the planets beneath us,
bobbing in their heavenly swimming pool,
drenched
limbs out stretched,
Saturn’s arms clenched, her rings rolling on her wrists
Mars’ two moons squinting back us
The Earth beating like a heart
vessels stressing around the sapphire muscle,
as its rhythms match out racing hearts
Behind us Spanish red meteor belts
blossom into space
and deep British blue dust clouds form
Their debris whistling in our ears like
gun shots
driving us away
When we leap at the edge of the universe
and kick the star dust behind our heels
Elbows locked, knees braced,
Comets scrapes against the hull of our boat
we leave behind our beautiful sky
tattered by red scabs and blue bruises
When we enter the atmosphere
Thousands of ancestor stories will whistle in our ears,
course through our bodies,
While Earth races closer
And the dawn dawns on us,
bracing for impact
Waiting for that resistance to resonate violently up our soles
and into the spines of future generations
we will ride the blood-rush through twisting streams, red, ruby rivers and spider-web inlets
Screaming at the top of our lungs as we teeter at the edge of the world
And feel our worries and fears for a moment become weightless
as we grab onto the lips of our boat and plummet down the waterfalls
The drones of our lola’s and lolo’s will flat-line peacefully
when we moor into the cave-like canals of the heart,
Feeling peace like still waters throb around us
We will kick our feet up on the wicker edges of our vessel
Gazing at the thin clouds
To the endless blue that swallows the edges of the sky
We are missing our families
Nursing the comfort that we
Look up at the same sky
Our hearts will flutter as the breeze whispers through the looser seams of this boat
Wishing one day we would be able to leave this dying heart behind
and paddle against the atmosphere
Somewhere , Up there
where we could watch
the earth beat
to our beats
to the rhythms
of our rowing
But instead we sow stars
hoping one day among clouds of sampaguita
galaxies might come bursting out of fields
and their fruits will explode with milky way and honey
But instead we are angels
looking up from where we have fallen
from the edge of the universe
scattered onto the vascular ridges of this heart
Now
Our fingers trail the water
Watching our stories like the ripples begin growing
We are going
everywhere
And nowhere
Knowing that
our flowing
Is only another wave kissing
the paddles
Of our rowing