“Fishbone Hair” is a poem that was written after the death of my niece, Bianca Lanki, who passed away from leukemia when she was only 8 years old. It’s a reflection on the many Marshallese who’ve passed away from cancer, and other radiation related illnesses, and the legacy of the US nuclear testing program on our islands. It’s a call to remember, to honor, to never forget – it asks who have you lost to radiation related illnesses?
This video was a collaboration of efforts between myself, the College of the Marshall Islands Media Club, and Dan Lin and Corrin Barros from Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. You can read Dan’s blog post featured on National Geographic, which describes our process pretty well. If you’d like a tangible way to support Marshallese on nuclear issues, learn more about the Nuclear Zero lawsuit filed by the Marshall Islands and sign the petition to join 5 million people who support our cause.
Fishbone Hair
Inside my niece Bianca’s old room I found
two ziplocks
stuffed
with rolls and rolls of hair
dead as a doornail black as a tunnel hair thin
as strands of tumbling seaweed
Maybe it was my sister
who stashed away Bianca’s locks in ziplock bags
locked it away so no one could see
trying to save that
rootless hair
that hair without a home
II.
There had been a war
raging inside Bianca’s six year old bones
white cells had staked their flag
they conquered the territory of her tiny body
they saw it as their destiny
they said it was manifested
It
all
fell
out
III.
I felt
bald and blank as Bianca’s skull
when they closed her casket
hymns wafting into the night sky
IV.
Bianca loved
to eat fish
she ate it raw ate it fried ate it whole
she ate it with its head
slurping on the eyeball jelly
leaving only
tiny
neat
bones
V.
The marrow should have worked
They said she had six months to live
VI.
That’s what the doctors told the fishermen
over 50 years ago
when they were out at sea just miles away from Bikini
the day the sun exploded
split open
and rained ash on the fishermen’s clothes
on that day those fishermen
were quiet
they were neat
they dusted the ash out of their hair
reeled in their fish
and turned around their motorboat to speed home
VII.
There is an old Chamorro legend
that the women of Guahan saved their island
from a giant coral eating fish
by hacking off their
long and black as the night sky hair
They wove their locks
into a massive magical net
They caught the monster fish
and they saved their islands
VIII.
Thin
rootless
fishbone hair
black
night
sky
net
catch
ash
catch
moon catch
star
for you Bianca
for you
