NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Mad Boy's Love Song (After Mad Girl's Love Song) I close my eyes and the world drops dead The curtain of blackness falls, blanketing a cruel reminder that I think I made you up inside my head You as a thunderbird is all I see roaring, splitting silence Trailing behind you twinkling smiling newborn stars thatform a shower up above In your afterglow, I hear the stars trickle down the blackcurtain of a world dropped dead I feel them fill the lines in my face, finding their way into the strings that tie together my life, dripping along and spiraling deeper and deeper until my every moment becomes bewitched When I lift my lids, all is born again, but now water-colored with you instead  The straining of my grocery bags, is the crinkling of your skirt The scratch on my car hood, follows the curves of your leg   Every bump in the road, is my eyes tracing the tempting lines of your fingertips The red of the shampoo bottle, glistens with the faintness of your lips White sheets of paper,

"Glass Kiss"   I can taste the ocean between us As I step towards you, it wades against me, salt stinging to my skin Your eyes are set, chained to the horizon Reminding me that I find it hard to breathe when you are not looking at me You are whispering something But it is lost in the wind, as if drowned quietly in the spiral corridors of a seashell As you turn and see my approach The ocean sighs, waters parting, revealing the heart of the world As I pull you to me, I gasp, as if searching for the land’s last breath When our lips meet, the ocean pours into the earth’s core Cooling every heat filled moment I have shared with you The sky trembles, lightning piercing all And you are forever mine in a sea of newborn glass

O Tano' Gof triste hao pa'go Sa' i mas gefpago na diamante Esta gaige giya Guahu O Mapagahes, Triste hao, Sa' taya' mas "fluffy" Kinu i guinaiya-ku O Uchan, Un na'matmos i tano' Lao esta masmai i korason-hu ni guinaiya O Isa, Manayao hao kulot Ginen i mitkilot na guinaiya-ku O Atdao, Hosguan hao Nu i minaipen i guinaiya-ku O Pulan, Gof hosguan Nu i mina'lak i nobia-hu   Kao toninos hao? Sa' toninos yu' Kao toninos hit gi i tasin guinaiya?      

The Battle of Guam/Okinawa project took several months but it was well worth it. After visiting the Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa I was consumed by a painting that is in their permanent collection, "The Battle of Okinawa." This painting was designed to show the horror of World War II in Okinawa, when the island was destroyed in a typhoon of steel. This painting was the height of the Museum and filled with imagery that intrigued, haunted and horrified. I knew I could never match up to the intensity of that image, but felt the need to try to create my own intervention. After traveling and visiting Okinawa so many times in the past few years and seeing the way our tragic histories have given us similar difficult experiences, I wanted to build upon the intent of the original Battle of Okinawa painting, but also put my own wishful solidarity, in whatever form I could find it. I decided to try to paint an image that could combine the effects and impacts of World War II in both

Gaige yu' giya Luta gi este na weekend. Dumeskakansa ham yan i nobia-hu guini. Meggai dinimalas yan na'triste gi i finakpo' i sakkan para Guahu. Giya Luta hu kekehagong huyong todu ayu na piniti yan sahuma halom nuebu na fuetsa. Este na ma'pos na sakkan na'yafai para Guahu, lao mas meggai na makkat na cho'cho' hu fafana' gi i mamaila na sakkan Para bai hu honora este na sen gatbo na tano', malago' yu' na bei hu "post" guini magi i palabras para i ofisiat na kanta-na i isla. I na'an-na i anthem Luta "I Tano'-Mami." Estague i palabras:  *********** I Tano’-mami I Tano’-mami I Tano’-mami ti dangkolu na isla, Lao sumen gatbo todu i uriya I manaina yan todu i familia Hu diseseha nah u li’e’. Todu nu hu gofli’e’ Guini gi islan Luta KORU Dikike’ na isla, bensiyon yan bunitum, I ladera-na kahulo’, kulan gua’ot para’isu, Ha fa’t

Gaige yu' Palau gi este na simana. Manaliligao yu' put "self-government" guini ya taimanu ha ayuda Palau nu i inadilanto-na. Humanao yu' nigap para i "Rock Islands." Sen gatbo este na isla siha. Ma fa'na'an este na lugat "paradise" put i ginefpago-na. Hu gimen i ginefpago guini kalan taya' nai mantana' yu'. Achokka' hu sen agradedesi i tiempo-ku guini. Ti nahong este para Guahu. Mahalang para i nobia-hu. Achokka' gaige yu' giya para'isu, ti ha tatahgue hao. Ti ha songsongsong i maddok gi sanhalom-hu put i tinaigue-mu. 

While I was in Okinawa last month my girlfriend and I committed to writing a poem to each other for everyday that we were apart. Below are three of my favorites that I wrote for her: ********************** I am typing on my love's laptop I am missing her with every stroke When my finger presses a I wish my arms were wrapped around her When my finger presses k I wish my lips were on her When my finger presses l I wish I could tell her how much I love her ******************* I found a knife while walking in Ojana Okinawa I swore it was the knife you gave me with love One sweaty Saturday morning The knife looked like it would fit in one of the chambers of my heart I plunged the knife into my chest and found that I could breathe again I had forgotten the feeling of breathing ********************** I wrote in my diary “I love you” a thousand times Then I tore it up and walked to the store to buy a new one I drew in stars on every page “I love y

Happy Valentine's Day!!!! *************  "You Is All I Want" Michael Lujan Bevacqua 2011 The waitress at Coco’s is happy I am not. She sashays to my table as if she has just stolen the sunshine of everyone in the room and beams at me with her conquest I am not in the mood for anything. I miss you, and it is the kind of missing that makes you feel like something is pushing your heart through your chest, giving it the sense of being released and set free as it is being choked to death by the bars of your rib cage. As the song says, there ain’t no sunshine when you’re gone, and every sunny soul makes me wish I was some cartoonish DC universe villain, with a ray-gun that would suck out your happy soul and then stab you in the eye with a spork afterwards. The waitress leans over and asks me, smile stuck between her teeth, “What do you want today?” I look at her wishing I was the protagonist of a movie and so when I glare, extras jump, cameras zoom, the soundt

Last year I was confirmed as the new Chairperson for the Independence Task Force for the Commission on Decolonization for Guam. The Decolonization Commission is tasked with guiding the process by which Chamorros will exercise their right to self-determination and select the next future status for the island. As part of the Commission there are three task forces, one for each of the three potential options: independence, statehood and free association. There is pretty much taya' support nowadays for these task forces, but I'm trying to do my best to get things started without any budget. A temporary website will be up soon that myself and my girlfriend are working on. A meeting will hopefully be taking place before the end of the month of Task Force members to start work on creating a position paper on why independence is the best option for Guam. I'm also creating a listserv for events and news related to decolonization and independence. I have also decided to start a i

I sent this email out over the weekend. If you are interested in joining the conversation or helping in other ways, please contact me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com . Please forward the info below to anyone you might think is interested. ****************************** December 17, 2011 Hafa Adai Todus Hamyo, As some of you may or may not heard, I recently became the Chairman of the Independence Task Force on the Decolonization Commission. Over the past year, since the change in Governor, there has been much more debate and discussion about political status, and so it is possible that we will be holding a self-determination plebiscite in the next few years. As the Chair of Independence I'm looking for anyone and everyone who is interested in helping get the message out about decolonization and Chamorro self-determination in general, but also independence as a political status option in particular. Please read below and see if you are interested in helping out. I am looking for

Mangguaiya yu' ta'lo. Gof kinenne' yu' as Guiya. Ti apmam para bei in ali'e' gi guinife-hu. Este un betsu para Guiya. ********************* Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, And arbitrary blackness gallops in: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.) God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade: Exit seraphim and Satan's men: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I fancied you'd return the way you said, But I grow old and I forget your name. (I think I made you up inside my head.) I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my

Esta måtto ta’lo i tiempo para bei in che’gue ta’lo “Sakkigake Chamorro!” It’s been a while since I did one of these, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it. I never was really an Otaku, but rather an anime dilettante, and so I very rarely go through periods of sleep depriving anima obsession, where I make unwise decisions to stay up for most of the nights reading through back issues of mangas such as MPD Psycho or Gantz (ta'lo !) or start watching an entire season of anime late in the evening, knowing full well that each episode I watch will just make me want to watch one more and the closer I get to the end of the season the more I will be able to convince myself that it is tomtom that I stay awake to finish it. The rest of the time however, my approach to anime is very temperate, ko’lo’lo’ña since I moved back to Guam. While in the states, cheap, sometimes pirated anime on Ebay or at flea markets would constantly feed my habit, on Guam finding titles I’m intere