My Filipina-American crow-color hair, coarse as kudzu.

My Filipina-American olive tan, my banana skin.

My Filipina-American lips like blood orange gloss.

My Filipina-American thick brows raised like lookouts.

My Filipina-American arms swollen as tilled-up earth.

My Filipina-American legs crossing themselves, devout,

snakelike slender.

My Filipina-American hips, wide tripod stance.

My Filipina-American small stature framed in fear.

My Filipina-American womb, hollow as a spooned-out fig.

My Filipina-American round dumpling face at risk

of being consumed.