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January 8, 2019
[While looking at photo albums](
[Kay Ulanday Barrett](
Before everyone died â in my family â first definition I learned was â my motherâs maiden name, ULANDAY â which literally means â of the rain â and biology books remind us â the pouring has a pattern â has purpose â namesake means release â for my mother meant, flee â meant leave â know exactly what parts of you â slip away â drained sediment of a body â is how a single mama feels â on the graveyard shift â only god is awake â is where my â family banked itself â a life rooted in rosaries â like nuns in barricade â scream â People Power â one out of five â leave to a new country â the women in my family hone â in my heart â like checkpoints â which is what they know â which is like a halt â not to be confused for â stop â which is what happened to my maâs breathâ when she went home â for the last time â I didnât get to â hold her hand as she died â I said I tried â just translates to â I couldnât make it â in time â I tell myself â ocean salt and tear salt â are one and the same â I press my eyes shut â cup ghost howl â cheeks splint wood worn â which is to say â learn to make myself a harbor â anyway â once I saw a pamphlet that said â what to do when your parent is dead â I couldnât finish reading â but I doubt it informs the audience â what will happen â which is to say â you will pour your face & hands â & smother your motherâs scream on everything â you touch â turn eyelids into oars â go, paddle to find her.
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Copyright © 2019 Kay Ulanday Barrett. Used with permission of the author.
[Kay Ulanday Barrett reads "While looking at photo albums"](
About This Poem
âThis poem was written during a moment when grief took over, when I realized ache wasnât solely about death, but about being in diaspora and the ways loss takes over your lineage, and how a simple mundane act of looking at photo albums can make you swell with emotion. My family is from the Philippines and survived the corruption of the U.S.-Filipino regime during martial law, which led to their forced migration to the United States. The pace of the poem succumbs to pauses and the complexity of frenetic existence. The pauses create an inextricable circuitry in which death and mourning are just every day. Consequently, photo albums are vessels, much like a time capsule. What happens when you are the only one left alive with the archive, the memories, the origin story?â
âKay Ulanday Barrett
[Kay Ulanday Barrett](
Kay Ulanday Barrett is the author of When The Chant Comes (Topside Press, 2016). They are a poet, performer, and educator living in Jersey City, New Jersey.
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Poetry by Ulanday Barrett
[When the Chant Comes](
(Topside Press, 2016)
"Kissing in Vietnamese" by Ocean Vuong
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"Translation for Mamá" by Richard Blanco
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"Becoming Ghost" by Cathy Linh Che
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January Guest Editor: TC Tolbert
Thanks to [TC Tolbert](, author of Gephyromania (Ahsahta Press, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day for this monthâs weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Tolbert]( about their curating approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year](.
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