Buying Newspapers in the Evening

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I buy the morning paper at night,
close to midnight when the pavements
breathe freely. I’m like a brisk walker aiming
for less calorie. Everything is available
on the net and I know I am buying history.
I love taking walks, after buying what’s left
of the morning papers, going farther
around the block, past another 7-11
to check for more leftover dailies.
I buy them all, compare their lies.
I brisk-walk to Mini-Stop or Lawson’s,
covering a hundred meters more.
I don’t aim for 10,000 steps
(I can’t even do a thousand).
There are no vehicles passing by,
only the night watch of mobile patrols,
call center agents on their break
at McDonald’s, in convenience stores.
They probably wonder why I buy papers
from yesterday. By some dude on shorts,
shirts, and sandals. They will never know,
at home I have Persian kittens.
They will never know my lovely pets’
need for yesterday’s papers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Totel V. de Jesus
Totel V. de Jesus
Totel V. de Jesus, 49, is a freelance lifestyle journalist covering theater, ballet, music, cinema, the visual arts, and everything in between. His articles appear on ABS-CBN News online and once in a while on GMA News website and the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. A few of his earlier poems were published in Graphic magazine in the 1990s, when the great Nick Joaquin lorded over the literary section. This feels like a homecoming.

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