THE RICE PLANT
I
held him by his slender neck
To
pierce him under his chin
And
saw white sap trickle forth
Like
milk spills from a tin.
I
shook him strongly by his thigh
To
feel him flail like a fish
And
heard his hands’ helpless sigh
Like
sand shaken in a dish.
I
bravely bent his youthful bone,
Which
sprang with a painful cry—
I
wondered how one so green and wet
Should
so resemble I—
For
I am brown and dry.
Originally published in aaduna notes (April 11, 2015)
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| I held him by his slender neck... |
Rice is a symbol of Southeast Asia—note, for example, the bound rice sheaf in the ASEAN logo. Malays, who include, principally, Malaysians, Indonesians, and Filipinos, consider themselves a “brown” race. The poem “The Rice Plant” merges three motifs into a single identity—the rice plant, the “brown” Malay race, and the speaker in the poem.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal experience, Americans do not understand the “tin” metaphor in the poem. For many decades after the Second World War, Filipinos obtained their milk in tin cans, or simply, tins. The way to open the tin is to puncture it on top on opposite sides using a single-blade can opener. When the can is stabbed, milk squirts out the way sap flows from the green head of a rice plant.
Canned milk is still widely purchased in the Philippines. I believe most Americans today obtain their milk from cartons.
Gonzalinho
Photo courtesy of Joe+Lauren
ReplyDeletePhoto link:
http://songoftheopenroads.blogspot.com/2011/07/jaunt-into-southeast-asia-bali-style.html
Gonzalinho
A morena speaks:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.instagram.com/p/BEsATdtiuCB/?taken-by=iamsuperbianca
Gonzalinho
“Should so resemble I”—“I” pronoun used here is a subject complement (or predicative complement).
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
Among the poems I have published, a version of this poem, which dates to 1985, is probably the earliest one I have written.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho