Chanidae

[thunder crashing]
[overhead like rolling]
[waves in the distance]
Do you hear that?
That shore belongs
to another age.
Land retreating
and reclaiming. On
its own, sand would have gathered there.
BASECORACAY
It's all the same. You've
not lived long enough
to feel it in your gut. the law
of sympathy: that which rhymes
with something else times
with it.
[Fort Santiago, which used]
[to, in the Spanish Era, watch the mouth]
[of the river.]
[A wall with so much]
[air, labyrinthine]
[air that watches the sea, Mall]
[of Asia. variegiated wall]
[of mangroves and reefs]
In the time before you, that
was how it was. And that is my problem.
I remember it all
because my body does not
let me forget. I was here before your father
and his ancestors found this place.
Before the other chanids
vanished. You see,
I was one of the lucky ones. It
allowed me
to breathe air. It allowed me
to walk on land. It gave me legs.
But what of that world?
[waves breaking]
[bombarding Manila]
[like thunder underwater.]
to return to it...
[intermittent drops]
[of pregnant globes of rain]
that, would mean, to feel its waves
through my fins, millions of bones in my flesh, and oh,
♪ Saan ka man ♪
to no longer recall the passing
♪ naroroon ngayon ♪
of wave after wave of
♪ Kaytagal mo nang nawala ♪
bodies. But all that is silly.
♪ Babalik at babalik ka rin. ♪
I will not survive these waters.
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