Sunday, May 21, 2017

TONY ROBLES


After Alex Tizon’s article "My Family’s Slave" as regards Eudocia Tomas Pulido 
(The Atlantic, June 2017)

Salamat

The rain had just stopped
And I boarded the bus
On the way to
Work

The engine roared
And I sat with
The other passengers

I looked to my left
And saw a young
Pinay sitting next to
An older Filipina

They looked out
The window nodding
Their heads

Salamat means
Thank you, the
Young lady said

(a question yet not a question)

That’s correct
Said the older
Woman

And the younger woman
Spoke of her parents
Who had come to
America in the early 60’s

She apologized for
Not knowing
Much Filipino

I listened, not
Understanding
Any Filipino at all

And the older
Woman got up
To leave

It was nice
Talking to
You

Then she
Was gone

A minute or
Two went by and
The young woman
Began to cry

She tried to hold
It back but
She couldn’t

What could I
Say, what could
Anybody say

Except

Salamat
Means
Thank you





Stirred

“Cooking was Lola’s only eloquence”

The pot of adobo
Has been stirred

It has simmered
A long time in
Silence

Eloquent
Silence

Feeding us
What we want
To forget

What we don’t
Want to hear

What has been
Beaten into us
And out of us

Working hard,
Unrecognized

“Incidental”

Beaten for the
Transgression of
Another

Poignant in
A biblical way
Should we attempt
To attach to it a
Ration of rationale

Back pay
Pay back

On whose
Back 

A gentle yet
Strong back
That bore prints
Of foot like the
Ancient maps,
Weighted down by
The stillness of sun

What do we see
When we ride

What do our eyes
Skim, skip, gloss
Over
Kick aside from
A point of vantage
Or advantage

What shards hit
The eyes when
The light is scant

What is stirred when
Success successfully
Fails you and flails
You against the friction
Of time

What remains
Of the remains

Of all those cut
Out recipes and
Saved newspaper
Clippings and moments
Captured in eyes
And cupped hands
That held all the words
Not said

What remains
But eloquent
Silence

In a cheap
Plastic
Box





Tony Robles is the author of Cool Don't Live Here No More: A Letter to San Francisco (Ithuriel's Spear, 2015). He is also an activist.







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