Uncolonial this shelter, home my skin, bring me ocean & a song of tangling limbs

“Luzon’s coastlines are receding.” – Lois Calderon, “Philippine coastline receding because of Chinese mining black sand,” CNN Philippines, May 27, 2021

                                                                                 Your brows
                                                                                              reveal untapped 

coast, fresh
          ores, endless		   archives. Listen

                             as your marrow

         seeds a winged
                                   spell.
                                   Listen
                  for carapace

                            stroking new waters. Listen
 
          to ocean			as it murmurs to black

                  sand. Listen 			         	to all the secrets

          of your ancestors’ survivals. 		You are for communal 

                 nourishment, not soul-theft. 			Listen –

                                               my neck lusters. I chime

          across your waist, shallow
of your cheek. Attest: eight

         valves, one heart. Search again

                                  for sea. Search again for melody. Discover: 
                       search again. 			When you have sung, open

your eyes. My hair rests
               in a bun – your palms pitched

                            to praise.	     You may bring

              chocolates but a comb
                           of capiz will do. If you crave

              lips, fetch a bright
                          rambutan. If you seek		the fellowship

of a shared	                   bed, bring warm hands willing
to seed a root-filled			     back. Somewhere

             above Mindanao & below Luzon, 	  	a shore
                          quickens. You amass 		legends.

             You mine
renewed 	inheritances.

                                          Braid

                        as if your hands
                                                were an anthem
                       rising from my spine. Smell
                unknown adolescence as
                                      you etch

the canopy of shoulder 	blade.

               You share 	memories. I give consent: 
                            replenish. I give

               consent: 	adorn. In your bucket, bones
                            of incandescence.
                                          In a fossil

                below skin & above bone
resides perfume. Come,

               caress 
                        bones – Come,

              caress 
                        homes – Come,
                                 come

                                            for me: scraped &
                                repaired
                                             archipelago
               of incantations.

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Purvi Shah seeds healing through anti-violence advocacy and creating art. She won a South Asian Social Service Excellence Award for her leadership fighting violence against women. During the 10th anniversary of 9/11, she directed Together We Are New York, a community-based poetry project amplifying Asian American voices.