Buried in dishwater, Erika scrubbed hard on the cast-iron skillet that earlier contained beef caldereta. The grease showed no signs of letting go, and she wondered how impervious to dishwashing liquid the next dinnerware would be: the microwavable pans. But she didn’t mind....
The tears I dropped on my mother’s casket were wiped off with an off-white handkerchief by a hand filled with bulging veins and dominating wrinkles. I heard a comforting scolding, hinting to me that this man is too long in the tooth to...
A ping sounded on my phone, and the words blinked on the screen at six in the morning.
“RISE IN LOVE.”
I squinted at the screen, half-amused. The message could only be from Kim—always dramatic, always turning a simple morning greeting into something that promised...
Close to the end of my ties with Catharine, I was inconveniently reminded of the time when I learned that I grew up with a father from whom I wasn’t exactly begotten.
This—this sudden act of remembrance—happened as she and I had just walked...
A whiff of jasmine
Rose petals scattering
Mighty pines dancing
Bamboos swaying, dipping, snapping back
Sunflowers gazing at their namesake in giddy worship.
A windy spring day in Godavari.
(April, 2011)
Last night was your birthday
Forgot to tell my cousin
to light a candle
on your grave.
DID I LOVE YOU ENOUGH
DID MY WORDS HURT YOU
YOUR SHADOW STALKED ME
I PROMISED
THERE WILL BE NO TEARS
I remember your laughter
as you sit in that corner of our apartment
and Itim, our...
I wake up to the
Aroma of arabica
This gray morning
In this now quiet town,
There’s gentle drizzle
Glistening on rooftops,
May it turn to rain,
To ease the pain
Of...
YOU NEVER FELT so secure before…. Hovering above the now-unshackled pristine and fertile triangular island of 1566 Bamban were familiar crimson cumulus clouds. Fresh...