Before the second episode of the Philippines Graphic Literary Workshop (PGLW) concluded on March 21, 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.
Mamang dashes from funeral to funeral
Learning the names of the deceased
And those of the weepers, their children, and their husbands’ mistresses
Keeping watch of the rapture of dawnbreak
Awaiting the end of the fast,
Chanting litanies of supplication to the Jack of Spades
Flip over this table, the worship of coins
Purse the body between my lips
And bequeath to me the new world.
Mamang puts us to sleep before the sun gets home
She walks between my feet skipping free
Her steps disturbing only the sleeping rattan.
The dead of the town await her hand
Raising them to triumph.
There were months when we were shuffled between
The houses of neighbors and
Sorted among relatives like chips
Of illegal tender. More than once her whimpers
Crawled between the cracks of our window
Pressed against my stomach.
I parsed the air for sampaguita and hot breath
And tasted only catpiss and drags of menthol
Knuckle my chest.
When the door bursts open, I feign death
To the world with a smile
And said a prayer
to slip into the next.
Written by Gabriel Lorenzo Quibol
