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.

Totel V. de Jesus
Totel V. de Jesus
Totel V. de Jesus has contributed two poems in the inaugural year of the Philippines Graphic Reader monthly magazine. One for its November 2022 issue and another for February 2023. In the 1990s, a few of his earlier poems were published when Nick Joaquin edited the literary section of the then weekly Graphic magazine. De Jesus has been working for two-and-a-half decades in the media industry, and now edits for the central news desk of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He looks forward to spending the rest of his life reading and writing more poems and other literary works, while taking care of six cats at home with his occasionally sleep-deprived wife.

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