the blue to come home to Angel Bella Lie with me In the misty sweat of Sibadan stingrays, Spraying Smoke From Their Slick backs That mingle with Our equatorial Sun; Lie with me In salt-crusted fish seas Of the palengke, My Lola led me by hand through. My Eyes Linger on Lines of Cultural creatures I savour, Once fluid in their movements In the waters of Philippine seas. To my left, the odd Barbie is Swimming among a tilapia’s Left lung, She is Plastic-wrapped, plastic perfection Slinging a silicone smile On her supple skin, Clinging to the wooden post Beside lunch. Western icon Of the beauty I hope to be Give it to me Lola Please give it to me Buy me the doll I will clutch As I eat your bangus And smile. Lie with me With the seat pulled all the way down And the tray table pushed all the way up Swim in the salty waters Of my eyes Of my final Philippine memory Of the sight of a whole family Waving paalam to me Who will I be When I fly over these waters again? Lie with me In foreign snow Blinding whiteness Indigo in the night. When will I know It’s home, The second winter? The third? The moment I make my first Friend in this elementary school A Barbie with eyes Of seas, teal like familiar archipelago coasts? Cry with me At the border between Salt and fresh Water Sundered by colonial walls We wear foreign faces Our skin darkened By hours in the sun Searching for fish To season With the asin That weighs our Seas down Lie with me on the Slick Surly backs Of whales From which I rise to search for Ancestral air I fly across continents And try what it means to be home I smell the salty air and befriend the seas From the skies; I see the Freshness rising above sunken waters, Skimming our salt, Like we were too heavy To be held by ourselves In immigrant-rich Personhood.