pusò

in the Philippines, it is rice, wrapped and boiled inside a diamond-shaped case of woven coconut leaves. it is also a mispronunciation of heart.

drop of rice in hanging heart— a) Mama wove the shape of a heart.

coconut leaf, fresh-green childhood b) will brown and brittle like a heart.

drop of rice worming from an eye, c) rolling down, mourn, bleeding heart.

drop of rice dripping on the mould: d) body moulds, dog eats a heart.

drops of blood: this contract, my future. e) a man has plucked out his heart.

drop of man, hanging on a Judas tree. f) bodybag: drip, drip dripping his heart.

sound of faucet, an echo, a cell hums. g) Mama’s fingers weaving back a heart.

so broken, so breached. why does this h) muscle beat? how is this still a heart.

drop of rice, on top of each other: i) grains of graves, grieving heart.

unmarked names, names begging j) the asphalt to name them. heart to heart.

to heart, we part from white jasmine, k) broken rice, gunpowder, this black heart.

we bite. bone, muscle, organ: every bit. l) Mama, how to weave back your heart.