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.
