Fighting Kite (page 10)

Here is the second poem in Fighting Kite. I wrote this poem as well when I was doing my MFA at Indiana. I'm not exactly sure, but I think this was workshopped in David Wojahn's class. I could be wrong, though . . . I was in that MFA program almost 40 years ago!                               — for my grandmother   The sky purple as ube jam, two hours before the sun awakes in the Philippine Sea, Nanay walks to the beach where fishermen are landing. My father, twelve years old, who has come along this morning, carries her baskets. By sunrise, they are set up under an awning of banana leaves at market, and she is calling, “Bangus! Lapu-lapu!” “Good morning, Manang Lourdes. I have fresh sap-sap over here. That one there was swimming in Manila Bay just before dawn.” My father is dozing off, and she taps him on the head with a wooden spoon. “Hoy, Martin! Wrap up that fish for Manang.” Her voice would become rough and gravelly from calling, “Alimango! Hipon! Talaba! Sugpo!” Later that morning, she and my father carry their baskets through the streets. “Of course, the bangus is fresh,” Nanay tells Aleng Naty leaning out her window. “Look at the eyes. Bright as a pearl.” Digging a thumb under the gill, she says, “Look at that. Still red.” My father can see himself poised by the river, his fighting kite dancing on air. Page 10 I think I wrote this poem with the intention (or at least an inkling) of eventually writing the book that would become Fighting Kite. I was certainly writing a lot about my dad early in my MFA training. I wrote about my mom too, but in fewer poems. Lately, I have been writing more about Mama, looking forward to a possible book dedicated to her. Something I notice now about this poem is that my lineation wasn't as confident then. For example, now I would not have had that from at the end of a line in stanza 4 as well as the by in the penultimate line of stanza 6. I think at that point in my development as a poet, I was still learning how to break lines in my own way. As always, I'd love to get some feedback or discuss anything with all y'all. Comment, okay? Thanks. Ingat.  FIGHTING KITE   FIRST FRONT CONTENTS PREVIOUS NEXT LAST