Tanaga: After Katy de la Cruz

For former Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III

Ocean-born, I was always
bound to come home to a
sea that has no memory
of me save for my stars, long-

lived and feather-like. So close
to the coastline, I hear sounds
as they move just above the
water’s surface. The rare glide

upward, the slide and swing, the
extra note. Balut, penoy,
balut! Bil—1 I hear your heart-
beat this far from your shore. What

we saved at the water’s edge
we also left behind, had
hoped to endure—cone shells, red
corallines, O love of mine.

 
1 Line from “Balut,” lyrics by Jerry Brandy in the 1930s and performed by Katy de la Cruz.

Notes:

Tanaga is an Indigenous Filipino poetry form. This poem appeared in our July/August 2021 issue with three other tanagas by JoAnn Balingit, Sofia M. Starnes, and Luisa A. Igloria.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2021)