3 Poems
March A.L.
March A.L. (any/any) is a militanteng bakla and Filipino Dreamstan/DNFer writing and dancing in Quezon City, Philippines. Fixated on contradiction, the political, and the occult, they write poetry, divine visions, and fanfiction about Minecraft YouTubers, death/desire, imperialism, and gender. They have work published in surfaces.cx, Ilahas Literary Journal, Slouching Beast Journal, and have work forthcoming in SPORAZINE. Currently, they are deeply in love with Sapnap (/srs). Otherwise, they ship DreamNotFound, and spend time as a revolutionary feminist and activist of the National Democratic Movement of the Philippines. You may follow them on Twitter @magmartsa and read more of them on magmartsa.neocities.org/writing.html.
Poet’s Note:
“imperialist bf” is a short and early suite of three poems written as a triptych of someone at the intersections of imperialism, sex, and trans/femininity. Though a broader meditation on U.S. imperialism in the Philippines as the military-prostitution complex, this suite is also semi-autobiographical, a portrait as an urban bakla at the margins of Western empire and gender, torn between the first world and the third, pain and pleasure, desire and death. I wrote these poems in the latter half of 2021 and initially posted them on Twitter; the poems here are slightly updated versions of those first posted.
imperialist bf
It comes / at a burning / thigh. // hipbone cleaved / &crush / a neck on / shoulderblade trigger. // See: / a god / chlorine-yellow. // A girl and / a man / always so / so tall. // To press / it in. / So much to touch. // I'll show you / how much / I can take. // how much / i've taken– // The full length / of sun / and steel. // The nightly bullet. // The bellywards blade. // did u think / i had / a choice? // My love, / ur the one / with my imperialist's / body. // I / anatomically / always / yours / and imperialized. // I know / you know / the feel / of my mothers / & sisters / & daughters. // the give / of brown fruit / to ur thumbs. // how red / and hot a plantation can be. // ur such a good / kisser. // now show me / how you've killed. <3
suob
facebook post / of / datura. // semi-feudal remedy / for a semi-colonial body. // My love, / fluorescent white– / modernize me. // I've been watching u from here / w/ a finger / to a redder & redder slit. // You / and ur lovely / sterilizations. // i'm sorry / ur so clean / and my wounds aren't. // So come, / Wash them. // Tell me about / anesthesia– // what'll make me / a woman / without blood / balete / & pain. // U call her / superstition / & I call her / mother. // And it's embarrassing. // the efficascent oil– / the camphor fumes / the ginger / & all the daggers / for chickens' throats. // How're u meant to touch / a girl like this? // ur hands r for steel / & mine r for rosaries. // Sign of the cross. // my future / in a pig's liver / & urs wherever. // Is it a // bend me / like they bend me now? // (ur ex, she / was so civilized) // over saltwater & steam / and shrouded in prayers? // Amen.
literally just a dude
see // she makes / him touch blood / which never dries. // where it hurts / angelical // and feels good / as empires. // &hummingbird / bullets / my boyfriend / has the face / of a horrible dog. / (a german / shepherd) // &When i strip / &kiss / i bring a rosary // &think of my mother / &sister. // I give it / my all. // he's never seen / a girl like this / before. // cuntless / with a blade / &a belly / full of girly / imperialized / corpses. // i make him / cum thrice / in a night / & i like / how he's never / held a gun before. // but his father has / and his father too. // he is such / a boy / and nothing else // nothing more. // (literally / just a dude / yknow.) // &When i kiss him / again / &again // i am a priestess / and a prostitute / and his girlfriend / and his Filipina wife // and the girl in subic / his father bought // to rape // and the NPA / in mindanao / his father / shot // down.
