Contrition for Motherland by Sarah Park (18, Philippines)*

                for the Philippines

Mother lies awake in the shallows, 
hair of sea foam whispering around her 
limbs of islands and thinning streams. The coasts of her figure 
grow a glut of green on every mountainside, out of sight 
from the capital buried in her 
left lung; entombed in the tessellation
of her highway skeleton.

---

She is withering slowly, like 
Palawan blossoms eclipsed in the flood. It is hard
to imagine her furled upon herself, so we rest easy
pretending she is not. The sun tramples the equator. We live 
bowed to the crucifix and her skin-
folding heat with a maid who puts a stranger to bed.
Wakes up to make breakfast, backlit 
by a vacancy, black wisps matted in beads of salt
-water on her face. She sings the lullabies with her eyes held shut;
locks herself in a coolness that is stinging 
in the name of acquiescence. In the name of hope, murderers are just
martyrs mired in politics. Man of his word, Rody swore, and 
for once, he did not lie. He starts the game
tossing bullets like dice. Pushes someone out of a helicopter.
Massacres the city next door. When the dice rolls to a 

stop, has the storm showered your morning glories
or left a chasm through the roof? Are you the one at the red light
or the child at the window, holding up the petaled garland, begging
for a coin and barefoot on the highway. His hands 
are too dirty to take something from; yours are bloodier
than you can bear. It has grown too cold 
for bare skin, so you roll down the window when the 
light blips to green. With hot
air blowing wasps off the roof, we pry Mother open 
searching for warmth 

to find her clogged with our gluttony. There is ice afloat in her 
belly from drinks at hotel pools, highrise
windows in view of pus rolling down the dome 
of sunset bleeding yellow. Now that she is open, we bring her down
like a tapestry tearing
and mangled. We step on someone’s back
to swoon over seascape moving in 
past the city smog. You and I too busy 
blowing bubbles in the flooded pool 
to wonder if they can swim.