Poems  by  Craig  Santos  Perez  (1980-­‐?

)  
 
ginen1 tidelands2 [latte3 stone park] [hagåtña, guåhan] ~

i haligi hålla haligi—

a pillar pull sky—

i tasa hålla tasa

a capstone4 "pull, son"

i tataotao with [our]

a body entire breath

~ ~

his hands— [our] bones:

husk5 coconut— acho' latte7

cooks and removed from—

feeds [us]— to museum

stories—this of trespass—
raised house— to here—

at quarry
outline forms ginen sounding lines

to sing remember just dad

forward—carve tied an old tire to

limestone6 to a metal fence pole

sing past— so [we] could practice

~ pitching8—o say can you hear

the hollow sound when
citizen: drafted
vietnam war— the baseball strikes
rubber—the rattling when
the rifle
he kept— it strikes wire—or
that perfect sound—
his uniform
his fatigue speak english only—
when [we] strike the pole
~
through the center of—o
soak coconut say can you remember
fibers—dry
just little league—barrigada
under sun— "tigers"—black and gold
"make rope"
uniforms—red seams—
braided hair— my brother played for father
"like this"
duenas memorial high school9
                                                                                                               
1 4
Ginen: (Chamorro) the name of the indigenous people of the Capstone: pedra no alto de um arco arquitetônico
5
Marianas Archipelago, North Western Pacific Ocean and their Husk: a usually dry or membranous outer covering (such as a
language. pod or one composed of bracts) of various seeds and fruits
2 6
Tidelands: land underlying the ocean and lying beyond the low- Limestone: calcário
7
water limit of the tide but being within the territorial waters of a Acho’ Latte: World's largest Latte Stone
8
nation — often used in plural. Pitching: throw (the ball) for the batter to try to hit
3 9
Latte stones: pillars on which ancient Chamorro houses were Father Dueñas Memorial School (FDMS) is an all-male
constructed as early as 500 A.D. They have become a signature of Catholic high school located in Mangilao, in the United States
Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands. Customarily, bones of territory of Guam
the ancient Chamorro’s and their possessions, such as jewelry or
canoes were buried below the stones
 Poems  by  Craig  Santos  Perez  (1980-­‐?)  
 
"friars"—maroon and gold last wild seen—

uniforms—to pledge allegiance— From “understory”

[we] collected american for my pregnant wife, nālani, during her second trimester
nālani and
baseball cards and cheered i walk
for the "bash brothers"10
to our
in "oakland"—near where small community
brian moved for college blue
garden plot
skies—the coliseum was in mānoa13  —  
an island—green and
the seed
gold uniforms—white packets in
bases—[we] stand
my pocket
to sing the national sound like
anthem—o say
a baby’s
can you see toy rattle  —  
[us]—what follows
when do
your flag? they spray

ginen the micronesian kingfisher11 [i sihek] glyphosate14 along

~ the sidewalks?

[our] nightmare : no from kunia15

birdsong— to waimea16,
the jungle was riven12 emptied
of [i sihek] bright blue green turquoise red gold fifty thousand
feathers—everywhere : brown acres of
tree snakes avian
silence— gmo fields  —  
how will
the snakes entered
without words when [we] saw them it was too late— open air
they were at [our] doors sliding along pesticide drift
the passages of [i sihek]
empire—then affect our
unborn daughter,
the zookeepers came—
called it species survival plan—captured [i sihek] and whose nerve
transferred endings are
the last
twenty-nine micronesian kingfishers just beginning
to zoos for captive breeding [1988]—they repeated [i sihek] to root?  —  
and repeated :
we plant
"if it weren't for us seeds in
your birds [i sihek]
would be gone rows, soil
forever" gathers under

what does not change / our fingernails  —  

syngenta, dupont,

                                                                                                               
10 14
Bash brothers: duo of former baseball players consisting of Jose Glyphosate: an herbicide
15
Canseco and Mark McGwire Kunia: an unincorporated community on the island of Oahu in
11
Micronesian kingfisher: typical bird in Guam Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States
12 16
To rive: to wrench open or tear apart or to pieces Waimea: Waimea Bay is located in Haleiwa on the North Shore
13
Manoa: a valley and a residential neighborhood of Honolulu, of O'ahu in the Hawaiian Islands at the mouth of the Waimea River
Hawaiʻi
 Poems  by  Craig  Santos  Perez  (1980-­‐?)  
 
let us praise the souls of native youth, whose eyes
dow, pioneer,
basf, monsanto are open-pit uranium mines, veins are poisoned
rivers, hearts are tar sands tailings17 ponds. “Trick
$240 million or treat,” says a boy dressed as the sun. Let us
seed sector  —  
praise El Niño, his growing pains, praise his mother,
corn for Ocean, who is dying in a warming bath among dead
cattle feed fish and refugee children. Let us praise our mothers

and syrup  —   of  asthma, mothers of  cancer clusters, mothers of

runoff turns miscarriage  —  pray for us  —  because our costumes
won’t hide the true cost of our greed. Praise our
[our] streams
red  —  poisons mothers of  lost habitats, mothers of  fallout18, mothers
of extinction  —  pray for us  —  because even tomorrow
lo‘i  —  50,000 will be haunted  —  leave them, leave us, leave  —  
heart sea
Twinkle, Twinkle, Morning Star
urchins die off  —   kaikainaliʻi19 wakes from her late afternoon nap
what will and reaches for nālani20 with small open hands—

our daughter count how many papuan children

be able still reach for their disappeared parents—

to plant using my iphone, i change my facebook profile picture

in this to a graphic of the morning star flag and share
an article about the grasberg mine21— gaping open pit
paradise of
fugitive dust  — count how many papuan children
are dying from copper poisoning each year—
Halloween in the Anthropocene, 2015
Darkness spills across the sky like an oil plume. kaikainaliʻi watches cartoons on our flat screen tv
The moon reflects bleached coral. Tonight, let us while nālani and i watch an online documentary
praise the sacrificed. Praise the souls of  black about west papua #forgottenbirdofparadise

boys, enslaved by supply chains, who carry count how many papuan children have watched
bags of cacao under West African heat. “Trick their loved ones mounted and shot—
or treat, smell my feet, give me something good
after we turn off the tv and close the laptop—
to eat,” sings a girl dressed as a Disney princess. nālani reads to kaikainali'i a bedtime story:
Let us praise the souls of   brown girls who sew
our clothes as fire unthreads sweatshops into "Twinkle, twinkle, small hōkū / Shining down on our canoe
Up above the sea so high, / Like a candle in the sky"
smoke and ash. “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me
something good,” whisper kids disguised as ninjas. count how many papuan children have been extracted
Tonight, let us praise the souls of Asian children to islamic boarding schools in jakarta—

who manufacture toys and tech until gravity sharpens "When the ocean waves are black, / When we feel like
their bodies enough to cut through suicide nets. turning back,/Hōkū shines its little light, / Guiding us all
“Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me,” shout boys through the night."

camouflaged as soldiers. Let us praise the souls count how many papuan children are seeking refuge
of  veterans who salute with their guns because across borders only to become forgotten refugees—
only triggers will pull God into their ruined
"Waves may fall or rise up high, / keep your eyes upon the
temples. “Trick or treat, smell my feet,” chant kids sky, / Hōkū peeks out in between, / Shining out its steady
masquerading as cowboys and Indians. Tonight, beam."

                                                                                                               
17 19
Tailing: residue separated in the preparation of various kaikainaliʻi: the poet’s daughter
20
products (such as grain or ores) Nālani: the poet’s wife
18 21
Fallout: the often radioactive particles stirred up by or Grasberg mine: the largest gold mine and the second largest
resulting from a nuclear explosion and descending through the copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in
atmosphere Indonesia
 Poems  by  Craig  Santos  Perez  (1980-­‐?)  
 
count how many hashtags it will take to trend
bleeding black island bodies strip-mined by bullets
crushed into slurry by military boots pumped
through pipelines across poisoned rivers and treeless
lands, shipped overseas and enslaved by our technology—

papuan cousins, imagine someday

we can talk story, chew betelnut22, and color
the soil with our spit as our children paint
their faces red and play #papuamerdeka23

"Thunderclouds may push and shove. / Rain may pour from

up above. / Never fear, our star is strong, / Burning bright
the whole night long."

                                                                                                               
22
Betelnut: the fruit of the areca palm (Areca catechu), which 1965 in the West Papuan or West New Guinea territory which is
grows in much of the tropical Pacific (Melanesia and Micronesia), currently being administrated by Indonesia as the provinces of
Southeast and South Asia, and parts of east Africa Papua and West Papua, also formerly known as Papua, Irian Jaya
23
Papua Merdeka (Indonesian): The Free Papua Movement is an and West Irian
umbrella term for the independence movement established during