Three Poems, by Dani Putney

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Some figures (2, 3, & 6) have been redacted from this catalog due to copyright constraints. The gallery apologizes in advance for the inconvenience. We appreciate your patronage & hope to see you at our next event.

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Figure 1. Unidentified artist, Canton System, ca. 1757–1842, loose leaf jasmine tea, silver coins, opium, & flotsam (polychromed) splattered against canvas (salted & sanded), 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm.). National Museum of Anthropology / Ethnology Collection, City of Manila. (public domain; photograph provided by an unnamed Chinese donor)

Figure 4. Sarah Dela Torre, Catholic Girl, ca. 1981–1985, cerulean skirt embroidered with school logo (frayed), crumpled handwritten letters dipped in perfume, packet of otap, & internship application (smudged & incomplete) glued onto a light-damaged poster of Tom Selleck, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm.). Private collection, City of Talisay. (artwork & photograph © The Dela Torre Family Trust)

Figure 5. Richard Putney, Military Triptych (detail), ca. 1957–1965, half-empty carton of Lucky Strike cigarettes, battered copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, mail-order bride catalog (annotated), & sepia photo of a smiling woman (stained with an adhesive substance) rendered on wood with a mixture of egg tempera & liquid myrrh, 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm.). Cherry Hill Farmhouse, Falls Church. (artwork & photograph © Sara Putney)

Figure 7. Unidentified artist (possibly East or Southeast Asian), Living Ghost, early 21st century, faded leather jewelry box with compartments containing green tea bags (generic), Poison eau de toilette by Dior, Marlboro cigarette butts, & a small sticker of a brown-skinned male figure with hole-punched eyes, 16 x 10 x 9.5 in. (40.6 x 25.4 x 24.1 cm.). Nevada Historical Society / Trails West Collection, Reno. (artwork & photograph copyright unknown)

LATEX

Son, your great-great-
grandmother grew poppies
in South China.      Respectable,
the rhythm of your voice says.
I imagine the synapses
in your brain: bulbs oozing
yellow milk & the eyes of scorers
twinkling with success.

Son, it’s hard work—multiple cuts
to bleed one teardrop.

You ask: Was my great-great-
grandma the harvester
or the farm owner?
I must come from a long line
of strong Asian women.

Son, I want to tell you this is a reverie,
my mother’s favorite origin story.
   But I can’t—
there’s no truth to share.

BALIKBAYAN

Every OF knows this. My mom is no exception. We’d head to the closest LBC, Jollibee around the corner. All branches must be located at strip malls. Maybe California is just a strip mall. I don’t remember what we’d put in those red boxes. I only know we sent “rich” American money—we paid for my cousin’s nursing education. They think we’re all rich, Ma always tells me. What we is that? I think it’s funny how my mom wants to be American while I want to be Filipino. She’s more we than myself, but I can still check citizen while she has to renew her green card. In this country, you’re only permanent until renewal. I joke that postcolonialism is a bigger word for compromise. Is that melodrama, or is it a cry for help: Take a box from my past, tell me I’m enough. I didn’t understand my niece when she asked why I wasn’t white because she wasn’t either. I hate my mom for thinking I am because I have a US passport. A couple of years ago, the day before Ma turned 52, my cousin, the nurse, Facebook-messaged me: Dani, your uncle Arturo is dying. She included a photo of him almost dead. Please tell your mom. Ma was upset, Teresa cursed my birthday. Exactly 52 years after my mom was born, her brother died in their native Cebu. I was part of the family that July afternoon, my heart’s rhythm inside the balikbayan box. I have the picture to prove—

Dani Putney is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race Filipinx, & neurodivergent writer originally from Sacramento, California. Salamat sa Intersectionality (Okay Donkey Press, May 2021) is their debut full-length poetry collection. Their poems appear in outlets such as Foglifter, Hayden's Ferry Review, & Pedestal Magazine, while their personal essays can be found in journals such as Cold Mountain Review & Glassworks Magazine. They received their MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women & are presently an English PhD student at Oklahoma State University. While not always (physically) there, they permanently reside in the middle of the Nevada desert.