Dianne Araral, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines-Singapore
after the North Luzon, Philippines earthquake, July 2022
by the grace of God we will rebuild
again, and again and again and
when my hands give up bury me under
our house, so I will never leave Cagayan Valley
human failure turns natural hazard into disaster
life-giving becomes life and death —
when mangrove barriers become concrete and glass enclave
a storm surge will take you before your time
divine creation becomes freak destruction.
that’s just the thing —
seismic shifts are natural
lack of infrastructure is not
landslides are natural
poverty is not
eruptions are natural
corruption is not
as for me? I don’t pray anymore. but I still ask for
patience, when the president’s fools will call it a “tragedy”
peace, for the people we can’t bring back
creation, destruction, my resurrection
and time. my turn to rest.
Dianne Araral (they/them/sya) is a trans ecolesbian from Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines, currently teaching social science at the National University of Singapore. They are interested in non-human kinship, speculative fiction, and rethinking our pedagogies in the midst of urgent climate crisis. You can find them on the Fragmentary Institute of Comparative Timelines (FICT.site), LitHub, Medium, and at home, brewing kombucha.