It happened in the Philippines
Despite not having anything to show for it, neither setting nor language, it was as if the stories were only claiming they’d happened in the Philippines.
Grief
'Grief' attempts to process the loss of an artist’s love for art from a time when she lacked the tools and resources to grieve; when she did not know how to even begin grieving; when poverty, overworking and the ceaseless need to produce, and a declining mental health made it impossible.
Balikbayan
Stella goes to the only funeraria in the town of Mayabo and encounters her chismosa classmate from elementary school as the receptionist. Not recognizing her, vangie gossips about the infamous cadaver that arrived the night before: Was Katrina Langitan an NPA member, a prostitute, or a drug addict?
Three Poems
On that day, a song will begin, / as scriptures have promised, but / of trumpeting jazz and disco. / I will find you in the chanting
Malansang Fish: Mistranslation and the Fact of Translation
Rayji de Guia's article interrogates the translational claims in selected Philippine fiction in English, pointing to the potentialities of disruptive, multilingual and untranslated writing in capturing the complexities of Filipino sensibility.
Unharbored Elsewhere
You wash ashore, / cheeks sun-bleached, / half-obscured / by a burst / of barnacles / as brine rushes in / the gash / of your neck, and out.
Lost in Cubao
of lips lingering on skin, scent after / a smoke, an absence, like people passing
Neither nothing nor forgotten: a suite
Blessed / are we for we are / our own synagogue / to feed, to shelter, / to bathe among women
English Policy
What happened to your mother tongue / when the Americans brought theirs?
Two Poems
caring for her cacti, succulents, blooming basil buds, herself, the dying mint shrub we took home
Aubade
repossessing how we have / so tenderly unraveled
A Portrait of Decomposing Girls
It begins here: My scalp tears, hairs fall; / in wounds festering, maggots.
House by the Beach
In hell, there is only water and I visit
Three Poems
A touch of your skin, / a coin in hand, you take / my heart from the market.
30
Age is just something else / between my lips
Greek Chorus Hears Medusa Doing Zumba
Did you hear mga dear Medusa / attends Zumba na?
Para Mi Papá
En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espiritu Santo.
Resistencia Arquitectónica
There is no point looking back and thinking the damage was beautiful. It was a desperate survival.
Death for Serafina
At twenty-five, Serafina met Celestino in the plaza, and they fell in love.
Terima Kasih
ilang-ilang, sambahan
The Mananaggal of Mayabo
Mayabo was a place that was, for the most part, held back in time.
Rayji de Guia is a fictionist, poet, and illustrator.
Her work can be found in Asian Cha, The Deadlands, harana poetry, Journal of English Studies and Comparative Literature, The Pinch, Makiling Review, Likhaan 17, and elsewhere. She also illustrated for Aurealis Mag, Rogelio Braga’s Si Betchay at ang Sacred Circle (Balangiga Press) and Is There Rush Hour in a Third World Country? (the87press), Zeny May Recidoro's I am a Wound Shrouded in Devotion (Alien Buddha Press), Angela Gabrielle Fabunan's Young Enough to Play (UP Press), and Angeli Lacson's Unbecoming (Paper Trail Project). Her poetry suite, “Neither nothing nor forgotten”, received first prize in the 2nd Gémino H. Abad Awards for Poetry and for Literary Criticism, and her short story, “Death for Serafina”, received second prize in the 69th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
In 2021, she was a fellow for fiction in the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She was a writer resident at Sangam House in 2019, Rimbun Dahan in 2022, and CMI Arts Initiative in 2023 with support from Asia-Europe Foundation and Cambodian Living Arts (ASEF-CLA), Para Site, artlink.ch, and Südkulturfonds.
She is from Maragondon, Cavite.