"I write the poem so it lives outside my body"
This is an extraordinary collection. I've been reading more poetry lately, and much of it hits me in the head, and others in the feels, but this is the first in many months that hit me hard in both. This is poetry that needs to be written and needs to be heard.
Andrada's words fall soft sometimes and harder at others but always land with emotion. She excels at the short story in a few lines "Tita throws a party in Ming-ao./It doesn't matter what anyone wears./The soldiers come down from the base/to get drunk". Through the volume, Andrada explores elements of Pinoy experience - especially with rape - but also with work migration, celebration and family.
The Anthropocene-themed "Instead of finding water" destroyed me. It's too long to quote without republishing, but on the line "I was going to make myself/Last" it got more than a little dusty in the room. (This is a feat, as it is a poem partly about mangoes, which I loath). I can't wait to read more Andrada, and while this volume has been described as devastating, it reads like an act of love as well as a cry for change.
"I write the poem to bury the endings"