Poems by Janice Lobo Sapigao
Oedema
Body Mass Index
“BMI (body mass index), which is based on the height and weight of a person, is an inaccurate measure of body fat content and does not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences…” – Medical News Today
My auntie sits slumped
like a pillow to a headboard
Her body———the incline of
the city’s foothills
When she leaves San José
for the Philippines I drive her
From the rearview
I see she lives sprawled across
the landscape of the backseat
My auntie is an oblique—-askew
She lives—in a drop
her collarbones and neck rest
make—a trench—-a dip
her head a sunset sunken
jutting in between two planes
Plateaus of discomfort—and—abnormal respiration
She is one long ligament
She needs three arms—and one belongs to me
She needs her legs and a cane
as I escort her to the bathroom to the car
to the security line at the airport—for maybe
the last time—ever—Every person in a wheelchair
Each elder traveling alone could be my auntie
A part of this or that country
immobile with a passport
Dual citizenship is six-thousand,
nine-hundred, and seventy-two miles long
Stretched wide and bordered
I know the word
for body in Ilokano is bagi—–as in baggage—-as in heavy——–bagi
My auntie is baggy her physique too big
for this life
My auntie is a number—a want away——-a weight——-waiting a room of herself
My auntie is short———of breath————of movement————of nation
Janice Lobo Sapigao (she/her) is a Filipina American poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of two books of poetry, microchips for millions (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc., 2016) and like a solid to a shadow (Nightboat Books, 2022). She was the 2020-2021 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate.