Marina's Archive | BAMBOO, SPLIT
fictional excerpt from a mock anthology within the novella’s universe
Disclaimer
This story is a fictional excerpt from a mock anthology within the novella’s universe. “BAMBOO, SPLIT” is presented as a piece written by the character Marina Reyes, a queer writer in the narrative. The anthology Baklang Alitaptap: Queer Folklore for the Future, Zine No. 3, Circa 1975 is not a real publication, but a metafictional device that reflects Marina’s radical reimaginings of Filipino mythology through a queer lens.
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“BAMBOO, SPLIT”
Originally published in Baklang Alitaptap: Queer Folklore for the Future, Zine No. 3, Circa 1975
by Marina Reyes
Once, there were two lesbians living in an ugly town. The river always sang lullabies. Frogs grunted during the evenings. And these two women lived in a bamboo house.
The townspeople called them sisters, tried to censor their scissoring love as familial connection, but obviously, they were lovers. Luningning and Mayumi scandalized the town. They called them witches, and even 1communists. What was the difference? Both were ostracized.
They didn’t mind. They knew how to curse gossipmongers with their menstrual blood. They knew how to fix broken bones. They knew how to praise deities for the fruition of their food.
Then, the monsoon came. The river threatened everyone, promised to swallow the town. They didn’t believe in it. They were the hurricane.
And then, against the whipping winds, they heard a crack. It sounded like fractured bones. When they went outside, the bamboo grove behind their home rustled with choir-singing.
They walked towards it, and when they knocked on the bamboo shoot, it split open. Inside, it gleamed with dew. The liquid sloshed with shimmer, and inside it was a child –naked, slick with birthwater, and glittering.
The child had no genitals, so they didn’t know what to call them. Only smooth skin that the moonlight refracted like fish scales. Its eyes blinked twice, and the rain stopped.
They didn’t know what to do, so they wrapped the baby in Mayumi’s old 2bandana. The baby cooed when Luningning hummed a lullaby neither of them knew. They named the crotchless baby 3Diwa.
As seven months passed, Diwa could already speak their words. They recited proverbs from books they read. By one year, wings grew out of their back and flapped excitedly to the whisper of the forest. They floated.
Every night, they soared. They didn’t look like an angel. Luningning and Mayumi thought of them as a 4manananggal. They tore their body free from their lower half, glitter entrails swinging as they separated themselves.
In the day, Diwa played with frogs and talked to the trees. Maybe they were their mother, the two women thought.
At school, teachers asked, Is it a boy or a girl?
The women would cackle at the question and answer, Yes. Child of genderlessness.
No one understood.
Soon, parents complained. The mayor threatened to pull out funding if Diwa still studied in the same school as their kids. The principal once berated Diwa for being a demonic influence, and the next day, he got ill.
The teachers invited priests. The church teamed up to exorcise Diwa. Rosaries clutched like grenades, they screamed verses at them.
But Diwa stood up silently to meet their gazes. And the river foamed. The trees growled.
Diwa raised her glittering hand and declared, You’re scared of what you don’t understand. What you don’t know you name abomination. So I will grant that wish.
And the two women watched as lightning struck the priests. Everyone screamed. And then, Diwa disappeared.
Some said they vanished into the stars. Maybe a field of fireflies. Maybe sucked into a weird 5anting-anting.
And years passed. They became legends passed around in drag balls and pageantries.
But Luningning and Mayumi knew the truth. Diwa lived with them until they died.
They were loved by their lesbian parents.
And when they died, they buried them in the bamboo grove.
When you press your ear to the tallest stalk now, you’ll still hear the family laughing, a music of love that will split another bamboo open.
Communists: In Philippine history, especially during the Marcos dictatorship (1970s–80s), those who challenged conservative norms, including queerness, were often accused of communism. This was used to justify surveillance or punishment.
Bandana: A common piece of clothing in rural Philippine settings.
Diwa: A Filipino word meaning “spirit,” “essence,” or “consciousness.” Naming the child Diwa solidifies their genderless, spiritual, and extraordinary nature.
Manananggal: A mythological creature in Filipino folklore, typically a woman, who detaches her upper body from the lower half and flies at night to prey. The story reimagines it as a metaphor for queer transcendence and transformation.
Anting-anting: A Filipino amulet or talisman believed to hold supernatural power. Associated with protection, invisibility, or mystical transformation.
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