Poetry&Stuffby
MARNE KILATES
MARNE
S
KRIPTS
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
The Book of Orag
They were so powerful they could
Exile a word from the language.
It simply didn’t mean that a boar
Was snorting to have sex,
Or by the same token, a datu’s or a sultan’s
Extraordinary prowess to impregnate,
Maybe maintain a harem, emulating
His Ottoman betters, no matter
How Sulu or Ibalon might have been
So far from the center of Majapahit.
It was so evil, the friars said, they made it
Into a name for the Devil himself.
And so they cast orag to the underworld
And none was ever so bold to utter it.
There it lurked with its near-relatives
The anitos and bailanas, and surely
The cimarrones and bandidos,
Later the filibusteros and insurrectos,
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“The word was used to describe the great men who lead our ancient tribes. They were brave men, they were men of grit who protected their people, their land and their possessions…”
—Abdon Balde Jr.
Because for us—Bikolanos
Who drink firewater and eat fire—
Lambanog and siling labuyo—
It never could be cowed or browbeaten.
We kept on using and saying it,
Rolling it under our tongues,
Magically like an incantation,
Tenderly like an endearment,
Crisply like an expletive. Because
the Bikol, and we daresay, the Filipino,
Simply has it. Plain old fire in the belly.
Asim. Apog. Astig. Ulo na lang dumudura pa!
Orag is the “It.” Oragon is he or she
Who has “It,” the whole gamut—
From chutzpah to animus to zing—
No white magic could banish the thing.
Marne Kilates
11 June 2012; Rev. 5 July 2019
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No banishment from the dictionary
Could kill the word, and likewise without
Ever suspecting it, the Noli and theFili,
Ang Dapat Malamang ng mga Tagalog
And the Kartilya—they all had it!
The Thomasites didn’t know the word
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But later, Lukban and Belarmino used it.
The Imperial Japs ignored it, to the boon
​
Of the Guerrillas and the Huks, who had it.
Does the CIA know about it? Well, they
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Study languages. Old people still forbid
The young to say it, putting a finger to their lips.
But it’s got the talent of the taong-lipod
And the tupung-tupung. It’s invisible, it can
Shape-shift, it’s beside you and you don’t know it.
In fact, even if the newest edition of Vicassan
And the UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino,
Still don’t list it—both have it!
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Orag, the name of the Fallen Angel,
Was in everyone and everything that
Didn’t belong to the fold. But colonization
Faded, and though Rizal and the Propagandistas,
Bonifacio, Jacinto, and the Katipuneros
Never suspected it, they had it!
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