Discompopulated
Put an X next to your answer. Your honesty is required.
State your English name.
__ I do not have one
__ I didn’t know I should have one
X Why should I have one?
What makes you different from the other girls?
__ I speak in tongues revealing where I’ve been
X There’s nothing fair about my skin
__ The water that surrounds the island I live in
What is your biggest fear?
X Every time I step out my door I am foreign
__ Every time I forget my official documents
__ Every time I am asked, Where are you going?
Define:
Who are you going with? The perils of a woman alone
True or False:
Sometimes you wish you were white/a man: Maybe
Define:
Because? If only to be safe
Define:
How much did you lose to be here? Everything
Define:
How long did it take? Centuries of brown bodies
True or False:
It is worth it: False
Choose one: What is your purpose?
Yes Not sure No
To insist on existing X
To insist on existing X
To insist on existing X
T. De Los Reyes is a poet and a designer. Her chapbook, Woeman, was published by Hawai’i Review in 2018. She was a finalist for the 2021 Sappho Prize by Palette Poetry. Her poems have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Pleiades, Split Lip Magazine, Cordite Poetry Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Rabbit Catastrophe Review, The Philippine Free Press, and The Philippine Graphic, among others. She lives and writes in Manila, Philippines.
Art: Grandma's Sugar Dish oil on paper, Paulina Swietliczko