Hardin

Candice Joy Oliva

“I am recording a voice memo while I weed 

As I try to speak in Filipino while gardening...Ano daw mabutwa? 

Trying to pull weeds with words...Vocabulary takes a while to get to the ‘root’ 

How to say it in Tagalog or Bikol...I will take either 

I ease it in...I try to remember 

Dahon Bulaklak 

Kahoy 

Tanim

 Lupa 

Damo  

Hardin 

Semantle and neuroplasticity out loud in the garden 

Words come and weeds go...Root after root 

Quackgrass, thistle, dandelion...And still, nothing. 

I meet alulunti, or is it alalaso? 

Get confused between bawang at sibulyas 

The same way I am transported back 

In a tricycle taking me home to lola’s 

While I try to place which is tuo sa wala? 

This is why I weed. 

I need to make space for new growth, 

For old growth...For ugat! 

I have to believe somewhere under the soil, 

Our roots will meet even if we don’t see it.” 

---

Candice Joy (she/they/siya) is an immigrant settler from Bicol, Philippines to Amiskwaciwâskahikan on Treaty 6. Their poetry joyfully plays and contends with languages towards meaning-making and neuroplasticity. Siya will either transcribe, translate, or transcreate the Tagalog or Bikol words she re-encounters in the excavation of home and kapwa.

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