Ina Cariño
no good people in my house
want to live we schedule
little quakes on Sundays
on the steps broken glass
after mass I prefer
to stay here pero
I never asked for this
a song strummed I listen:
such beauty music soft
demure papa's harana
mama—paraluman his muse
she croons of better yesterdays
floor giving way to earth
//
I'm of earth so sick so sick I lap soap
I wash my face imagine soil
pushing up as maya flinches flit in the garden
mornings I wash salt
from my body ibon! ibon! perched in magnolia
(stay with me) (is that wrong?) on good days I'm nothing— like mama tremors start
nobody stays which is wrong
no good person in my house
INA CARIÑO was born in Baguio City in the Philippines. Her work appears in Fugue, Tupelo Quarterly, Nat. Brut, VIDA Review, and December Magazine, among other journals. She holds an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Art by Abigail Hodges