as a taiwanese-filipina-american person, i often think about what i would be like if my homelands weren’t colonized. in pre-colonial philippines, for example, there was no gender binary, and women & trans people often held high positions of spiritual & societal leadership. my ancestors used baybayin, an ancient script with rounded characters as their writing system—which was eventually replaced by the latin alphabet during spanish colonialism.

now, i think, speak, and write in the english language because western militarism falsely taught my parents & grandparents that it’s a “superior” language. and, as a poet who earnestly studies & genuinely loves it…there’s a sense of grief i feel knowing that a more pure way of expressing has been stripped from me through colonization.

writing in baybayin must have felt good, in the bones. it supersedes capitalism, as if it could care less about appearing polished, and its syllables sound guttural & round, as if messages from deep within your belly had simply risen up and escaped through the mouth. i am on a quest to reclaim the english language; to write in a way that feels indigenous to my body.

—Katerina
(p.s. i wrote more about this in a recent substack newsletter)

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