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Philippines Graphic Reader

House of Lola

Notwithstanding its idyllic ambiance, Dumaguete City in the early '70s was a cheerful city overflowing with enigmas and desires. Amidst the brackish environs of Escaño Beach, a few kilometers from the city proper, an old house stood. In that rustic 18th-century house, there...

On Sundays…and Belonging

On Sundays and belonging,And when I used to mess around with Lolo’s typewriter:Clicking and clacking the worn-out buttons, it is legacySounding against my stubby child fingers. You would often tell me stories about Mindoro:Of your father and the town hall—how he would walk a...

Autumn Song

He was there again tonight. Seated at the last table of the small, dark bar, a lighted cigar in his hand, looking at me intently, almost unmoving. He must be around sixty, a bit on the heavy side, his Caucasian features blurred in...

Tropical Sundews

this is the timewhen the greens are greener than beforeas above so belowthe midges regret worshippingthe false god of all false beingsthe dewdrops and dropletsof this rainforest in early mornings they longed what it felt to prayand kneel before a deityears forgiven they could...

The Room Next Door

FICTION — I never really knew Eric. He was the kind of neighbor you saw often but never truly saw—a blur of dark shirts and headphone wires, slipping down the stairs with his phone in one hand and a plastic bag of instant noodles or soda in the other. Always alone.

Naked

I’ll wear nothingbut my trembling desirethe wild beat of my pulsethe lingering whispers of my past. I’ll wear nothingbut the ache of my lost love the sweet sigh of my first joy The ecstatic cry of happiness. I’ll wear nothing but the fire in my eyesnaked in your...

Random Pickings

The One-Night Stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Maribel glanced at her plane seat, grateful that she had the aisle seat and only one seat beside her. Her seat mate was a...

ISSA, ONE AND ONLY

I am Issa—the one and only. My parents named me Juan, which in English sounds like “one.” In Tagalog, “one” is isa, just like...

What Are Years?

“It’s now or never,” said Marie, who’s in her mid-twenties, with a rugged face, vivacious and full of urgency. She took her friend’s right...

Mother/Magical Creature/Crane

No one believes me when I say I’ve seen a magical creature. But what else do you call someone who grew lives from her own...