O to Bambang we go
by Patria Rivera

Next to Divisoria market, it is the best place

to go to for lace—bundles and bundles

of it cased in cords, taffeta—lace

scalloping the world from end to end,

oddments of handbags from the ’50s, unused:

velvet and velveteen, bottle-green shape

remnants of Picasso squares, hexagons, spheroids

—and thick, grey, woollen dresses and skirts to keep

buns covered in 43 degrees Celsius. And for under-

garments, bolts of Kentucky poultry feed bags

printed with flowers of cotton fields, maize-yellow

panties sewn from huge flour sacks from Minnesota,

soaked for three days in kerosene to wash away the paint—

O the Stateside feel of it, on salty, brown skin.


© Patria Rivera