AILEEN CASSINETTO

After Alex Tizon’s article "My Family’s Slave" as regards Eudocia Tomas Pulido 

(The Atlantic, June 2017)

The Woman Next Door

She unfolds 

between chores, in a form 

she knows to be fleeting—

that is, the balance 

of inconsequential sums,

the sum of everything 

she had discarded:

The pile of clothes impartially held 

its breath as the woman sorted

out the  t̶o̶x̶i̶n̶s̶ tokens of

a life with few

choices and higher 

odds. What were her chances

and which ones did she take?

And for whom.

She resumed

the folding, eyes on

the inevitable creases.

In the Island of Good Boots

One had to be groomed - by culture, by tradition, by authority - into servitude.

—Ninotchka Rosca

Of course, kasama (companion) 

sounds gentler, more

charitable, somehow, less

demeaning, even, when

compared to katulong (helper),

utusan (servant) or, heaven 

forbid, alipin (slave)

—a word which hasn't been used 

in over five decades—

Kikay/Emmy/Malou/Lourdes/

Betty/Alice/Gigi/Baby/

Fracing/Honey/Anali/Ming/

Puring/Nora/Lilia/Yaya—

Manang,

Pakibili ako ng _____.

(Please go to the store and buy me _____.)

Pakikuha yung _____.

(Please go fetch _____.)

Paki plantsa.

(Please iron.)

Paki—

is a gentler, somehow more

charitable, somehow less

demeaning version of utos (command).

"One had to be groomed - by culture, by tradition, by authority -" to be 

a benevolent master.

Pakitali—

Please tie my shoes.

Aileen Cassinetto grew up in Manila and moved to the U.S. almost 20 years ago. Since then, she has released a poetry collection, traje de boda (Meritage Press), various narratives on cultural memory (via online and print media), and three poetry chaps through Moria Books’ Locofo series.