Philippines Graphic Reader

Philippines, Proposed Addendum to Definition of noun : a stream that cuts through districts or fields of grass : an enclosure of water (see Badjao or Aquarian) : a subterranean wanting : a recollection of faces : a great and significant number, just below innumerable but above sufficient : parable,...

He arrived a couple of hours early before the appointed hour.  Earlier, he took the first plane to his province at five in the morning and was at the island airport an hour later. He rented a van to take him to his...

The neighbors say he suffers from dementia. On the balcony, he stares at the cloudless sky. How he declares the stars have turned into tubers of motley shapes and colors! He asks if he could fish some and trade them for a gantang of rice. Perhaps the copious harvest at...

I sit ugly, like a duck waiting to exhale, in a crowded jeepney on the way to somewhere that seems like nowhere on a morning like this. The old car is at the shop undergoing check-up after wading (Inay, sinking) through floods the...

Random and I find our landscape a chore. Every day we push this sunset up a hill then see it roll down. Random knows. She has joined the sunset. His Wawa, adding to the weight of the grey boulder of fading light. I now know why it was the colors she feared. Sunsets everywhere in big cities and small towns. People...

Eden Reyes Blanco sifted listlessly through the manila envelope of documents labeled Fairview House which her secretary had brought to her. She was having her glutathione drip in her dressing room. Although she co-owned the chain of La Eleganza Wellness and Enhancement Centers,...