Speak Your Peace: Samantha Estoesta

This piece was originally performed at Cha Island on March 26, 2015 for our local Speak Your Peace! event. It was amazing.

Radiation
~~~~~~~~~

My bones are not chalk
And yet the osteoporosis that accompanies each fevered thought
And impassioned expression of emotional and
Unrestricted contemplation
Reduces my wails to whispers,
My screams to sighs

I am stuck between two worlds,
Held in orbit by
The exoticism of my skin

A mestiza of San Fernando and Bagio
A Daughter of La Union and Benquet
One of the many threads that weave together the Igorot
The Estoestas, Panelas, Ulats,
Advinculas, Everlistas, Anchetas,
Riveras, Estoestas.

Our skin is made of the grains of the mountains we carved,
Freckled with sunshine flares,
Rice water and coconut husks in the resolve of our feet,
Our nails are pearls,
Stronger than the very currents that shaped the islands we call home

Yet

We are held in orbit between two worlds
Colonized over and over and over again,
Eroding the very plateaus and valleys of our being
Transforming our plutonic pillars of earthly resolve,
The strongest of mahogany,
Into the palest of ash

But

Ash can turn into diamonds after pressure is placed
With the clarity that comes the journeys of my sisters
The sparkers of revolutions with no more
Than the dirt beneath their feet
Sharing words in sighs and whispers
Churning sentiment to sediment
Placing pressure on the pressures of the people

We are mountains,
And rosewood,
And pearls
And my bones are not chalk,
But diamonds.