Ina Cariño’s sophomore poetry book, Reverse Requiem (Alice James Books, 2026), continues to deliver on their promising talent for blending the narrative of self, place, and history. While in their first book, Cariño focused on their Filipino upbringing, Reverse Requiem focuses on the unhappy marriage that comes from planting those roots in American soil—made most explicit in their opening poem, “Native Title,” which focuses on their grandmother’s Japanese Maple being haphazardly replanted to uncertain results.
Their references are carefully picked and thoughtfully explored. From Mary Oliver to Giordano Bruno, Cariño takes the strength of philosophers and Pulitzer Prize winners and ties them down to the approachable earth—from innumerable suns to holding hands with your sister; from a box of darkness to a woman of the dirt. By moving the abstract to the physical world, they speak to an embodied poetry of everyday life.
Not everyone can relate to the galaxies, but we’ve all had to deal with dog crap, which is the focus of “Tae.” Cariño’s focus on a topic as mundane as dog feces is masterful in that they build a world from it. Everything builds into a narrative about the tensions between a white male dog-owner smirking at their Filipina mother as she cleans up after his dog when the dog poops in her yard for the umpteenth time. From there, Cariño can go beyond the individual dynamic into what it means culturally and what this dynamic in the microcosm can represent in the macrocosm of society at large.
The poem that hits me the hardest is “I can’t afford a whole universe,” where Cariño starts by using the first line to further the title. “but I can buy it in parts” answers the opening, reframing their own position. What seems at first to be about making your peace with the little you have then dives into fantasies of plenty before ending with the four lines that stay with me: “no, I can’t afford a whole universe. / I can only imagine what it’s like / to die with plenty. / to eat without shame.” In a country where everyone can feel the effects of the American purse no longer stretching as far as many of us need, they turn the poem on its head from the interpretation one could have at the opening about making do with humble means into a deep reflection on the way that financial strain can leave you reeling with buyer’s remorse over even the most basic of purchases—a banana; a knob of ginger. In Cariño’s work, there are no simple moments. Every moment in our lives is a rich tapestry of environmental, political, scholarly, social, and cultural factors coloring the replanting of a tree, sisters holding hands, and even getting groceries.
Buy this book if you are able. Take time and sit with it. Take time and think about the journey Ina Cariño has been on and what it means more broadly. Reflect on your own journey, how the same forces Cariño points to have affected your life and those around you.
To get a taste of their style, listen to Ina Cariño reading “Summer Figs.”
Reverse Requiem is available from Alice James Books
Katie Ashlyn Collins is a playwright, dramaturg, and scholar. In 2015, she graduated from Scotland High School as Valedictorian before receiving her BA at UNC thanks to The Old Well Scholarship. Then completing her MA at Binghamton University. During her studies, she spent five years on the board of Richmond Community Theater. Katie’s first staged works debuted at RCT, including The New Twenties, The Ladybug Inn, and Marley. Maared has received two staged readings. Time and a Half was produced at the Sunrise Theater, where she served as the Operations Manager. She’s the Box Office Manager at The Carolina Philharmonic.
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