The rice in your bowl
are foreigners
because this Asian country
now imports rice
from neighbors.
Now when it comes
to your plate
you can't call them
balikbayans no more.
Their ancestors used to be
a staple on your palayok
but now they are either
Viet or Thai.
A shame, but can you blame
the crops when your family
sold your fields to trade poverty?
Yet you eat them whole-year round
and it is no longer good for kamayan.
The rice immigrated
so what we do now is to
only chew and swallow.
*balikbayan, 'balik' means 'to return' while 'bayan' is country. A balikbayan is someone who returns to the country from living abroad
*palayok, an earth jar traditionally used for cooking rice and other dishes
*kamayan, traditional way of eating rice using bare hands