threshold/mother/child
Jan Maghinay Padios
threshold/mother
a translasure*
In the lower limit of sound
I stand inside a stone floor
calling out to the blunt
between doorpost doorpost wall.
With heavy podium in position
I move around in the tents of
hope. The balcony pivots
as I step over logical water
in the direction of the outer
sanctuary, the inner sanctuary,
the courtyard, and the galleries
of expectation. I walk across
the plains of optimism, one hundred
and thirty upheavals ahead.
Beyond are gold rafters, walls,
and doors. Bow down at the gate
then go out on your hands.
*An erasure of English-language phrases randomly generated and translated from Ilonggo, containing the word ‘threshold’/‘atangan’, ‘dulunan’. Source: Glosbe.com
child
a translasure*
this marauding loss over the years remained unbounded
in the room formerly known as girl
why do Narratives differ can we learn what happened
discuss Witness discuss matters discuss daughter
waking upright still
how can a girl build a home in a Body no one can notice
I abide. I was up high praying for something
but quiet commands our household
and God orphans every falling child
*An erasure of English-language phrases randomly generated and translated from Ilonggo, containing the word ‘child’/‘bata’. Source: Glosbe.com.
threshold/mother/child
Jan Maghinay Padios is a scholar, writer, and artist whose work has been published in Indiana Review, Construction Literary Magazine, Cultural Studies, The Center for Art & Thought, and Zócalo Public Square. Her academic monograph, A Nation on the Line: Call Centers as Postcolonial Predicaments in the Philippines, was published by Duke University Press in 2018 and won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Social Sciences from the Association for Asian American Studies. Jan has a BA in Architecture from Columbia University; an MA and PhD in American Studies from New York University; and an MFA in Creative Writing from Randolph College. She is an Associate Professor of American Studies at Williams College.
Artist Statement: I am an analytic thinker learning to dwell in the disorderly, attend to my embodiment, and articulate the emergent or inchoate. My work traces the connections between sensing/knowing, intuition/analysis, and intimacy/detachment. Through text and images, I grapple with memory, illness, trauma, and family. My work is deeply connected to my studies of U.S. history, the Philippines, Asian America, and the politics of writing and representation.
Note: "threshold/mother/child" was recently exhibited in the symposium "Architectures of Hiding," through the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University. See here: https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition/if-these-walls