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Philippines Graphic Reader
The Heart Wants What It Wants
Such a slim volume but how sharply it connects, the Reader muses, feeling as though a door were creaking open as Annie Ernaux’s “Simple Passion” triggers a meandering meditation on how sheer emotion runs the day-to-day.
Teetering on the brink of 50, the...
STUDENT’S CORNER
When the Philippines Graphic Reader started in February 2022, it became the first and only nationally-circulated, monthly, literary magazine in the country devoted to Philippine literature in English. This year, on its third year, it transitions to being an education tool for promoting...
ISSA, ONE AND ONLY
I am Issa—the one and only. My parents named me Juan, which in English sounds like “one.” In Tagalog, “one” is isa, just like my name. Well, sort of—it’s Issa, pronounced, Ee-sah.
In my language, we don’t say “she” or “he,” we say...
Arranging Furniture at Midnight
I move chairs at midnight,
Adjusting my wife’s preference
Which one is facing which.
The cats are doing football
Banging on tables and walls.
All six of them,
Siamese versus Persian
All team High Maintenance.
My angry wife wakes up,
Reminding us she needs to sleep.
I’d pay for this in the morning,
When...
The Times, They Are A-Changing
Saturday. The afternoon’s stifling heat is rising in waves. Rogie crosses the road and pushes the gate of the compound of Dr Rieu’s residence. Rogie notices some village chiefs treating themselves with soft drinks. After the usual welcome by their candidate for town...
Patterns
The chisel as creator
Lends shape to wood, to stone.
Shape being the truth of character,
Reality of body and bone,
Sculpted fact of form,
The confidence of matter.
The paintbrush as creator
Draws maps of rainbows,
Contours of celebrations,
Then blends faithful colors
With their reserved spaces.
Spaces being the measure of possibilities
That...
