PANGAKO
Pangako: (n.) Tagalog for
‘promise’.
The colonizer’s favorite
color is narcissus white.
Selfishly stab the point of a pole into a plot of
land, foreign flag attached — — unwelcome
westerners and their impish imperialism
carelessly planting bad seeds into rich soil
resulting in the death of my roots.
Cutting us down, like tall
ancient trees — — but
my ancestors are in
everything that I can and
cannot touch.
The brown of the earth that crumbles in my
fingers, the brown of their bodies, the bronze
of their skin.
The buwan, it follows me
— — the same moon that
watched as stories were
told, as journeys
happened across the
sea, as history was made
in small corners that grew
wide and vast by those who dared to fight battles
for their freedom.
Oh, island girl with the
mango juice dripping
from your chin: Where
is your home?
Eas
y.
Home is where your
heart is and you leave
pieces of your proud,
golden heart:
in Maharlika in the city of Manila,
where you were born in the city of the
916 in your parents’ tired hands in
your lover’s calming arms
an
d
in the midnight sky; where
you offer up fragments of
your soul for all those who
came before.
This is your
promise, your
pangako: their
stories will be
unshelved.
They will live through you,
rise with the sun once more
as they did in the beginning;
running down to the ocean
blue, the keeper of destinies.
Diaspora baby
dreams under the
same stars that her
predecessors
danced beneath,
and she swears:
“I will tear out the poison
these intruders have
planted, embedded into
my identity. They will
never, ever erase me and
the generations before
whose spirits I carry
within my heart.”
— pangako,
i.a.
Isabel Angeles (she/her) is a 19 year old Filipina writer/poet from Northern California. She is also an intersectional feminist, activist, and performer. Isabel attempts to utilize the arts as a platform for her experiences as a Filipinx-American, being an immigrant, her bisexuality, and reclaiming identity. Her poetry also deals with other subjects such as addressing racism against Asians, womxn empowerment, romance, and more. Isabel is also the founder of the Walang Hiya Project (@walanghiyaproject), a collective for Filipino womxn and NB Pinxys which strives to be an outlet for healing and decolonization.
Instagram: @lumpiyas / @roni.isabel
Twitter: @lumpiyas
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