On the weathered pier of Huntington
laid upon the salt licked beach,
the old, hull of a forgotten
ship. Split, for its wooden fruit. The juice
of our sweat becoming mist
while we walked the plank,
in suspense, between clouds and sea.
The knotted surface sore
from sun. Burnt backs float
on the waters of their green veins,
like Guamamela1 on the ***** river
banks. “NO ACCESS,” signs in red
and white lights, harshly beating
against the dark skin of the wood,
the memory of another life.
I remember, my Lolo and Lola
bending to the waves of people
pressed still in one space.
The one time, they could hold onto
my hands, I felt them shaking.
In tongues they resurrected
the island, said there none
of this exists.
Why did I laugh?
1. Filipino hibiscus
This is part of collection for a senior portfolio project at CU Denver
Project is intended to represent the stylistic distinctions of great American poets through the imitation of their poetics and/or their subject matter
James Wright wrote on the "outcasts," of society in an attempt to capture the sentimental loneliness that the disenfranchised members of society felt. This poem works to capture the feelings that my Lolo and Lola have felt their entire lives as Filipino Immigrants into America. Using free verse, I have created a narrative story that marries the surreal aspects of memory and reality. Wright also used very purposeful punctuation to enhance the simple rhetoric he uses in his poems which I also attempt to exemplify in this poem.
