Seventeen Ways of Looking at a Brown Man and Woman

[ My apologies to Raymond Patterson and Wallace Stevens ]

"Small in physique, small in stature and living in a foreign land,

these Brown Manong and Manang survive whatever that comes

their way because they know how to do it on their own way."

                                                                      - Punahele

1.

Why not the color of the gecko: yellow-green?

Brown, I assert, and nothing else!

The color closest to his favorite barking pet.

The color of Hawaiian Host chocolate his nieces

always crave for in the philippines.

2.

If you caught her a number of times rubbing

name-brand bleaching cream on her skin,

Why then that Brown still remains?

3.

Brown.

The color of her dried-up tears after dancing at

nights until the wee hours of mornings in a Korean

bar at Keeamoku Street.

The color of her worn-out nipples in the name

of love and tenderness.

4.

Brown.

The color of the pupils of his eyes dilated permanently

by abusing that precious stone as his wife dances at

nights in a Korean bar at Keeamoku Street.

5.

Brown.

The color of his favorite dipping sauce smelling like

a mouse rotting in a pool of brackish liquid that his

wife calls "patis-bagoong."

6.

Brown.

T he color of his face as he insists on his innocence

to the supervisor of Island Recycling. The poor guy

found out notable discrepancies of the weight of three

rubbish bags of crushed soda cans he just sold.

He carved out the bottom of one and pebbles the size

of corn seeds fell from it.

7.

Pssstttt! Pssstttttt!!!

I bet you it's not the popping up tab of a soda can.

Without looking, I can say it's the Brown Man calling out

to his friend seated on a bench, waiting for the "The Bus"

on the other side of Alakea Street.

8.

Psstt! Psssttttt!!

Psssssssssttttttt!

Hooyyyyyy!!

Oh, my! It's the same sound I hear as I walk along

the cobbled path of Fort Street Mall, forcing me to stop

right in my tracks to look where this "pssst-pssst" sound

is coming from.

9.

Ah, it's Farrah Kristine, the Brown Girl I met at Costco

Salt Lake. I helped her load up 55 bags of Hinode rice

to her Honda CR-V that time a strike was being mulled

over by the Honolulu Harbor Guys.

10.

"Why you gave me a wrong number?" She complains.

"I was trying to call to find out if you want to buy my excess

bags of rice."

11.

Rice or without rice, Patis-bagoong or without patis-bagoong,

the Brown Man survives. He owns underground drug stores

peddling a one-of-a-kind stone, "da kine" the man in blue calls

ice.

12.

Stone or without stone, the Brown Man's not a bit concerned.

He also grows weeds with five-fingered leaves hidden under

dense foliage of bitter-melon vines.

13.

Gals and guys clinging to urine-damaged lamp posts

on Hotel Street, thin and elastic like stretched tongues

of lizards snapping for unwary flies- roll up those dried

buds supplied by the Brown Man into joints and smoke them

like ordinary cigarettes. The smoke, they swear, brings

them closer to heaven and clears up their clogged sinuses.

14.

The Brown Man, losing a sizeable amount betting on a

Sunday cockfight in Ewa Beach, eventually finds himself

seated at a karaoke bar somewhere in Pearl City, taking

swigs of gin tonic to fire up his subdued spirit.

15.

"Hmmm, Hmmmm," his forced coughs followed by his

hiccups, all of a sudden he stands up! The bones of his

flat okole sticking out, he closes his eyes watery from

smoke, purses his lips, and starts singing "My Way."

16.

"May prend ayl sey it kler, Ayl stet my kis op wits aym

sertin.." Lifting up towards his coned mouth his closed

right hand suggesting an invisible microphone.

17.

Ear-tickling accent and bad enunciation disregarded,

wild applause and cat calls from among his audience

in drunken stupor drown his now wailing voice.

He nods. He smiles. He stomps his extra-wide feet,

waves his hands showing callouses , enjoying all that

misplaced adulation, forgetting even for a while, he's

still a Brown Man as he belches out the last line of his

song: "Ay did it myyy weyyyyyyyyyyy...."

*  Loose Translations

Stone - Cystal metamphetamine

Pssstttt - Some pinoys are fond of calling the attention of their friends by

imitating the sounf of escaping air through the valve of a rubber tire.

Da Kine - Hawaiian pidgin for the English word, The kind.

Ice - Another name for crystal meth.

Okole - Hawaiian word for butt.

Manong - An Ilokano word paying respect to an elderly man.

Manang - An Ilokano word paying respect to an elderly woman.

[Some people from other ethnic races use Manong and Manang in a very demeaning way toFilipinos in Hawai'i.].