Gising

Steffi Tad-y

 

 

 

I can’t remember
if it were barbed wire 

or bits of beer glass
the bougainvillea towered over, 

or an orange boomerang
then a scar under my eye. 

One day, I want to retire
from seeing only the spectacle. 

Live long enough
to grow with my hands. 

Press one’s fingers into the dirt.
Gather beans. Make of it a warm bowl. 

Feed my child.    
Muscle a cramped road. 

This is my signal. Today, I will celebrate.
Here is a grandfather 

in a bucket hat,
bobbing to Purple Rain.  

Sunflowers from Sxótsaqel
spring out of his car window. 

A basset hound says hello.  
Earlier, my nephew had a thread 

around his two milk teeth.
His mother by the door. 

I wish you were there to see him.
The way he said wow. 

In our language, to wake up
rhymes with blessing.

The sun is
beginning to line my irises. 

My niece, how she sings
Baby Shark. 

What else can I tell you?
Let us go. 

There is side-street parking.
The ticket machine 

looks like a pair of binoculars
across an orchid mural. 

Coat & keys are on the table.
I’ve been late all this time.

 

 

 

Steffi Tad-y is a poet and writer from Manila. Her latest chapbook, Merienda, was published by Rahila’s Ghost Press in 2021. She lives in Vancouver, B.C., in the territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations.