As the first episode of the Philippines Graphic Literary Workshop (PGLW) slowly came to its conclusion on February 28, we knew that we had one more thing that we can offer our bright young fellows: a starting platform for their creative endeavors. Here, we present one of their final outputs from the workshop. We also asked them to provide an artwork that they think best represents their stories. Read on.
i.
As you worry over a lost
yellow shoe,
I wish we had gone back to my room
to shower.
I imagine
cold water
running through us
like your fingers
searching the skin of this beach.
I want to shed
this midnight flesh,
the grit of sand / mixed with fingerprint marks
on the legs you gripped.
Seasalt recalls the morning we met.
ii.
Under the red sun
of Martial Law,
we called it the crisis of metaphor:
how a body,
a shower,
a light switch,
must be in the form of coconut oil.
So you’d learn to stimulate nipples,
and how to scrub my back.
iii.
The shoe you lost
was no shoe
after all.
But because we kissed
near the coastline,
it was a mistake to think the patrol
wouldn't catch us
violating curfew.
iv.
You spoke now of seawater stories.
Of grandparents
in love by the shore
where your grandfather
hid his wife in mangroves.
v.
The Japanese had arrived.
He knew the trees
would keep them
out of sight.
Your grandmother clutched
those yellow shoes
like a rosary
in exile—
fearing that
with every cautious step
through spikes in the mud,
the revolution
will never be
the thing that
rescues them.
Ofren Gee Tadena is an inglesyero, bedrotter, wannabe poet-writer, a “self-taught” Lacanian, and a philosophy student at the University of the Philippines – Los Baños. He spends his days doomscrolling on Instagram Reels and his nights obsessing over the nature of desire. You can read his works on geeofren.medium.com and follow him on instagram.com/joaquinesque
Socials: @joaquinesque (instagram.com/joaquinesque) | Ofren Gee (facebook.com/geeofren)
