The Night Manny Pacquiao KO’ed Oscar De La Hoya
After Kevin A. González’s “The Night Tito Trinidad KO’ed Ricardo Mayorga”

The senator embraced his toddler’s yaya
& shared a San Miguel beer

in the spitshine polished banquet room.
How else could it have gone down?

They spit in our face, Filipinos.
They fuck us & when we come home,

They treat us like maids.
We stink of garlic and BBQ’ed dog.

Our dignity is as astig
as the glaring eyes of our Pinoy boxers.

I am writing this poem because
I am you, you know. I am you

& pride makes necessary things
even more necessary, and beautiful.

Because the muscle of punches
has forced our presence into newspapers

& our anthem is amplified
by the glitz of Las Vegas.

Our culture is an advertisement for Nike
kneeling at the cornerpost

& the jeepney driver fist-pumping,
war cry reaching heaven,

hands clenched & rosaried
like the two saviors we worship.

— Barbara Jane Reyes

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