The ghosts of sea salt corpses wander barangai coloco
do not stop to pick up strangers of barnacle flesh
soaking from the sea that drowned them
their skin blistered and fish scale grey
ghost breath heavy as the mountains of cadavers we buried
in this traffic triangle
the lolo petty cab driver shakes when his midnight passengers disappear
leaving only a pool of salt water on his tricycle seat
the smell of gutted fish stalking him home
seaweed arms crawling up his sprinting legs
beneath moonlight their wrinkled fingers comb the rice fields flooded in salt
skip through brown hills of dried tiegbow grass
climb decapitated coconut trees and sing to the families they left behind
their gasping voices pierce like heavy rains into zinc roofs
where else did you think our spirits would float?
in our town every corner is a white cross memorial and we are still finding bodies
skeletons trapped beneath debris demanding proper burial
in San Jose a family hears baby boy crying “buligya ako“, help me mama
the singing rains in his voice stalk them sleepless until seventh night
find a four or five year old body wedged beneath septic tank
wrapped in the mosquito net he slept in before
storm surge swallowed his morning bedroom
or what about the 56 children of Baranga y Santa Cruz
their legs strangled by thick roots of water lilies
floating in the river, nine year old limbs trapped in the crumbling
of their own elementary school
at night their spirits dance in the splashing sabang,
their laughter sweet as the stems of santa nectar
listen to the fifth grade chismosas gossip
chanting to the rhythm of jump rope
tong tong tong baki tong ki tong
ali mango sadagat balaki amasarab
mahi rapulihin sapagat ngagagat
mama teaches me iday
do not fear these yolanda spirits, speak to them
like you speak to your lola
ask them to watch over your brother back home
ask them to calm the winds
beg them to keep our island above ocean
until heavy rains and gusts of wind
no longer smell sour like decaying bodies
these spirits sing a warning:
andagat gugutun lagihap
the sea that feeds us will one day grow hungry
again
https://www.facebook.com/fastfortheclimate/videos/1676024415985722/
Isabella “Isa” Borgeson is a queer, multiracial Filipina American artist, international slam poet, and educator from Oakland, California who views her poetry as an artistic extension of her activism and community organizing. In 2012 she won “Best Poem” of the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI), where she represented UC Berkeley’s CalSLAM team for three years. Isa is a 2015 fellow for the Voices of Our Nation Art Foundation (VONA) – an international poetry workshop for writers of color at the University of Miami. In December 2015, she was selected as one of four poets in the world to perform at the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Paris for COP21, where she spoke to global leaders about the impact of climate change on her Philippines homeland. Her poetry is influenced by the two years she spent organizing rehabilitation projects after super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda devastated her mother’s hometown. She has been featured on CNN, the Inquirer, Guardian, and Berkeley News, and has shared the stage with influential figures including Dr. Cornel West. Her passion and commitment toward social justice issues and teaching poetry as a tool for resistance, empowerment, and healing keeps her grounded in her communities across the Pacific Ocean – a homeland from Oakland to Tanauan.
For more information see her website
Cover image: painting by Hassan Vahedi.
