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Philippines Graphic Reader
FOUR POEMS FOR 2024
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,...
The Commencement Speaker
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...
A Farmer’s Memory
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...
A Jeepney Tale
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...
Sunset Boulder
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...
Angel of Light
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,...
