Sampaguita (When We're in Bloom) by Momo Manalang

Mother                                    you splice my mango mouth in June,

 

                    shed my ripe skin                    in pockets of dawn,

                                                                                  lather

 

this naked tongue                    til’ shrimp paste                                  permeates,

 

                   beckon summer           to sing us                     eighteen thousand miles,

 

         until Pampango harvests                     my name                     from the sampaguita;

 

you, an exhausted ocean         who enlivens such roots,

 

          I learn to arrive            home                                      a child of the sun

 

                                   who serenades             without dry lungs—

 

         Nanay                                      you unravel me like seeds unfurling

 

in diaspora’s garden.

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Momo Manalang is a Filipino-American writer at Miami Dade Honors College in Florida, where she is majoring in International Relations. Her interest in foreign affairs developed after she embarked on a Global Citizen Year India Fellowship in 2015. Upon returning to Miami, she enlisted as a Finalist for the #ITooAmAmerica Contest and competed at the Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of AXIS Creative Arts Magazine, a student-led publication at MDC North Campus.