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Philippines Graphic Reader
Bound by the Same Umbilical Cord
Stone and Scratcher
after a photo by Frank Cimatu
My human knows how to scratch
ecstasy and submission out of me,
rendering my retractable claws
cold as a wet nose.
My side turns into a Zen garden.
I lie, a stone smoothed by hands
of love, slender fingers
tracing landscapes on my...
My Body, for Sale
-1-
Azalea stood in the dimly-lit alley, the cold night air biting her skin. She clutched a tattered piece of paper with an address scribbled on it, her last hope. The door creaked open, revealing a man in a sharp suit, his eyes scanning...
Hypnagogic
I see a scarecrow
On the yellow moon
By the window
Of the third kind
Woman or man
I ought to know
I look to the left
It shifts to the right
Towards Venus
I look to the right
It pivots to the left
Away from Polaris
But the night
Out of the spotlight
Restarts daylight
Parivaar, Family
As the plane prepared for the final descent, I could see Lap Kok’s blaze of lights. For a while it seemed the universe had inverted itself and heaped its billions of stars into this tiny former British colony. This was my first trip...
Two Poems for the Road
A Dirge
(Majayjay-Lucban Road,
June 16, 2024)
How swift the shift
from Thalia’s smile
to Melpomene’s frown.
One moment, Jack
was about to crack
a joke. Then smack
into our bus the trike
smashed, a deadly
strike. Traffic crawled
at the bloody spectacle
of the sprawled body
splayed in a strange
angle. Dazed in shock,
I brace myself
for a...
If I Could Be Free
“I envy all of them.” I greatly pitied myself for just observing what was happening around me. Sitting up straight in my bed, I saw from my window, a bunch of kids playing with a ball outside the hospital. I saw them kicking...
