Lumuwas ika o magraan dagos |
Get out of the ring, or you’ll die in pain
November 5, 2025
This poem and its translation are part of “Osipon” featuring art by Rustom Pujado.
A Omegang Babayi
Bilog a kapinunan
Galin sa kin sari, sa saring uda ngaran
Nagbuburung-burong
A marumarom na panganuron
Sa uda punto ka panahon
Sa kanatong imahinasyon
O ka kinaban, dinaguso iya
Labos sa mga nagtutubrag na bitoon,
Dangan sawang linulon
Maliwanag sa kalangitan.
Pinagilumluman niya ko, kauriyan
Sa tolong igin ka beterano
Ku ikarwang gyera mundyal,
itinumba ka TB.
Nagtinda iya sa gin ag sop drinks
Sa bayliyan sa baryo, pagkabalo
Nganing mabuway kami,
ta arog ku ibang soldados sa isla
Kinaris sira sa lista
Ku Rescission Act ni Truman.
Nagin ako batakwal,
Miturog kin sari itumba ka kaburatan.
Alagad sa kangitngitan
Sinirang na bitoon si mama.
Pinatanarin ako nungka
magrimongdimong sa kulog
Nakagat na ko ag kinalabos
“lumuwas ika o magraan dagos.”
Pero si mama, diri ako sinulta
Pinatindog ako ag inaplasan sa lana
“ta galin ika sa liwanag, ubuson mo iya
Magbulukon ag umalipwat sa liwanag.
Arog sa kapinunan.
The Omega Woman
In the beginning was the circle.
Out of nowhere, the unnamed where
nebulous gas clouds whirl in a pool
at no point in time in our mind
or the world, she streaked past
bursting stars, then coiled
serpentine bright in heaven.
I was curled inside her, the youngest
of three children of a WWII veteran
killed by tubercular bacilli.
The widowed years, she sold gin
and soda pop in village dance halls
for us to survive, as brown toy soldiers
like my father on the islands
were excluded by Truman’s Rescission Act.
I became an easy come, easy go tramp.
Slept where my drunk body slumped.
Yet mama rose from my evening like a star,
her eyes warning me of the hurt business
where I was stung and caged in their embrace,
“Get out of the ring, or you’ll die in pain.”
And mama, my alpha, would not let me go.
She let me rise and anointed me with oil.
“For you were born of light, consume then
that light and coil and curl in the light,
as it was in the beginning…”
