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.
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)