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Philippines Graphic Reader
The Long Road to Capiz
The dawn had barely broken, the rooster was still asleep, and stillness enveloped the sleepy village of Casanayan. There was no moonbeam for now since it was a new moon, so the room, carrying the scent of aged wood and memories, was wrapped...
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...
