I am not a minority

I am not a minority
I am whole
My nose is more flat than yours
I may be shorter
And my skin is brown
Like I rose from the soil.

I am not a minority
I am filled
With ancient history
That navigated SE Asian waters
Traded tinalak, pottery and
Our paper leaves floated across oceans
Like our boats rowing
With people radiant as pearls
Noble words worn like Golden necklaces
preserved behind ivory teeth
That were doors to oral knowledge
Balagtasan
We were warriors with our tongues
Potent like the lungs of Lapu-Lapu
Blowing against the consuming flames of colonizers

We battled with our tongues of fire
Making love
Embers converging
As the passions of resistance
Became one with another
Spreading like wild fire
Charring our indigenous identities
Like trees,
Now black stumps.

But somehow, new saplings grew
As the breaking down of survival
Mixes with foreign invasions
Our roots are held down
To who we are
Filipino.

The cosmopolitan of Asia
The gateway to the East and West
We traveled through the galleons and globalization
Taking with us
Our culture complex
Vexing as dreams
Or are they memories?

We feel at home anywhere
Just look in the ocean, in the water
And we will see the
Reflection of native royalty
Look back at us

Reminisce on those days
We floated on our boats
Like those love letters we wrote on paper leaves
And let them sail into the hearts of another.

I am not a minority
Because I love who I am
And it is not minor
To understand the richness of my identity
That I go back to centuries of people colonized, invaded from
Tribal and divinely ornate
Still holding to the inner strength
The gold within us that keep us grounded
As we transcend borders
Between nations
Building bridges
Between spirit and physical worlds
Crossing existences
Between past and present
Never flinching in resistance

I am whole
My history makes me more
Than just a minority.