“The Ghosts of Sea Salt Corpses” Isa Borgeson

The ghosts of sea salt corpses wander barangai coloco

do not stop to pick up strangers of barnacle flesh

soaking from the sea that drowned them

their skin blistered and fish scale grey

ghost breath heavy as the mountains of cadavers we buried

in this traffic triangle

 

the lolo petty cab driver shakes when his midnight passengers disappear

leaving only a pool of salt water on his tricycle seat

the smell of gutted fish stalking him home

seaweed arms crawling up his sprinting legs

beneath moonlight their wrinkled fingers comb the rice fields flooded in salt

skip through brown hills of dried tiegbow grass

climb decapitated coconut trees and sing to the families they left behind

their gasping voices pierce like heavy rains into zinc roofs

where else did you think our spirits would float?

 

in our town every corner is a white cross memorial and we are still finding bodies

skeletons trapped beneath debris demanding proper burial

in San Jose a family hears baby boy crying “buligya ako“, help me mama

the singing rains in his voice stalk them sleepless until seventh night

find a four or five year old body wedged beneath septic tank

wrapped in the mosquito net he slept in before

storm surge swallowed his morning bedroom

or what about the 56 children of Baranga y Santa Cruz

their legs strangled by thick roots of water lilies

floating in the river, nine year old limbs trapped in the crumbling

of their own elementary school

at night their spirits dance in the splashing sabang,

their laughter sweet as the stems of santa nectar

listen to the fifth grade chismosas gossip

chanting to the rhythm of jump rope

tong tong tong baki tong ki tong

ali mango sadagat balaki amasarab

mahi rapulihin sapagat ngagagat

mama teaches me iday

do not fear these yolanda spirits, speak to them

like you speak to your lola

ask them to watch over your brother back home

ask them to calm the winds

beg them to keep our island above ocean

until heavy rains and gusts of wind

no longer smell sour like decaying bodies

 

these spirits sing a warning:

andagat gugutun lagihap

the sea that feeds us will one day grow hungry

again

 

 

Isabella “Isa” Borgeson is a queer, multiracial Filipina American artist, international slam poet, and educator from Oakland, California who views her poetry as an artistic extension of her activism and community organizing. In 2012 she won “Best Poem” of the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI), where she represented UC Berkeley’s CalSLAM team for three years. Isa is a 2015 fellow for the Voices of Our Nation Art Foundation (VONA) – an international poetry workshop for writers of color at the University of Miami. In December 2015, she was selected as one of four poets in the world to perform at the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Paris for COP21, where she spoke to global leaders about the impact of climate change on her Philippines homeland. Her poetry is influenced by the two years she spent organizing rehabilitation projects after super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda devastated her mother’s hometown. She has been featured on CNN, the Inquirer, Guardian, and Berkeley News, and has shared the stage with influential figures including Dr. Cornel West. Her passion and commitment toward social justice issues and teaching poetry as a tool for resistance, empowerment, and healing keeps her grounded in her communities across the Pacific Ocean – a homeland from Oakland to Tanauan.

 

For more information see her website

 

Cover image: painting by Hassan Vahedi.