flowers for alphonso
By kevin martens wong zhi qiang
originally published Tuesday, 11 april 2023
on tigri sa chang
dos-dos na kristang & Inggres
in both Kristang & English
and presented at Poesiaeuropa 2023
Koitadu | Content warning
Please first read about my writing in the Skribadorang or Writing section on the Igleza page here before reading the piece below so you have advance warning about the rather spicy things that I often like to write about, and why I choose to write about them, especially in terms of subverting unhealthy stereotypes about gay people, Kristang people, Creole people, Indigenous people, masculinity, neurodivergence, the body, healthy forms of attraction and sexuality, and using my writing to process the severe individual, collective and inter-generational trauma and abuse I have faced across my life.
Ngua pra democracy, na riba di ubida dretu;
ngua pra pas, na mang bistih anela mostrah kazadu.
Ngua pra alkandra, na otru mang, dispois galang di kadmang;
Ngua pra justisia, ta gadrah petu, teteh kung korsang
inda abertu, dispois mutu tantu duensa sa chegadu.
Floris namba singku?
Na tudu banda di isti Kristang korpu.
Brasu grosu, fikah rama di albi;
perna kumpridu kung muskulu, pra drayah tudu sorti di jenti
kereh prendeh kureh, kereh prendeh pintah
kereh prendeh klai trukah tudu mundu sa trumenteza.
Sertu teng ngua fula namba seis —
mas eli sa lugah justu yo sa maridu,
kung tudu jenti Kristang teng mulera suzu
logu undi sabeh.
Ngua roza pra namba seti?
Memang pun teng, na rabu sa fing; membes teng lagri.
Namba di berdadi na Kristang belu kung nubu oitu.
Isti floris, nus pun podih mostrah kung tudu:
eli ngua bida vanezmu,
ngua kaminyu narenga.
Ngua song di maris pesisi;
ngua sorti di ropa turkeza
chuma seu sa bodru,
chuma mar sa leti.
Chuma ngua Makaravedra
inchidu di reinyang stranjeru sa lumi.
Lumikumiria komesah na rentu di fola,
spalah bai tudu rais kung ramu.
Bagah-bagah bos prendeh ki peli choklat pun podih gostah kumih sol
pun podih naseh fruta rikeza kung interu.
One for democracy, above the right ear;
one for peace, on the right hand wearing a ring showing who is married / Kristang here.
One for progress, on the other hand, after the non-binary band;
one for justice, protecting chest, nipples and the heartland
still open, after so much pain coming so near.
Flower number five?
All across this Kristang body, fully alive.
Thick arms, like branches of the tree;
legs long and muscular, for attracting all sorts of jenti
that want to run and want to paint
that want to change and transform abuse’s taint.
Certainly, there is a sixth flower/vagina —
but its location only my husband and lover,
and every Kristang person with a dirty mind’s power
will be able to consider.
A rose for number seven, however?
Certainly there is too, at the tip of the tail; sometimes with tears.
The number of truth in Kristang old and new is eight.
This flower, to all, we can also demonstrate:
a magenta life,
a chartreuse road.
A voice of sandy seas;
a turquoise color code
like heaven’s borders,
and the ocean’s milk.
Like a Makaravedra
filled with the light of everything a stranger-quing has built.
Photosynthesis begins inside the leaf,
and spreads to all roots and branches.
Slowly, you learn that chocolate skin can also learn to love to eat the sun
and can also give birth to fruits rich and grown to completion.