“Don’t get me wrong,” I said. The road had more glowing lamplights then, children shooting from one side street to the next, playing tag, some occasional clumps of housewives meeting for their daily fix of gross, men and women in uniform from work,...
The day Niko’s Mama got COVID, City Hall announced they needed to secure BIR permits and city health certificates to maintain their fish stalls. Niko had just come back from fishing, his face mask soaked in sweat, carrying buckets of rumpi to their...
Anita woke up without a name. The idea was terrifying, but for some reason, she was calm as the doctor called her name.
“Anita? Can you hear me?” The doctor peered down at her, but his eyes kept shifting away.
Another figure came into her...
Throughout the annals of history, many facts are long forgotten or never recorded at all. This is accurate regarding the time we humans lurked in caves. Although it is dispiriting to think so, there are countless tales of hardship across every corner of...
I stretched my fingers, and there I feltA cut, a slit of tender fleshUncertain where it came from, or when —Maybe yesterday, over piles of unsanded wood
Yet it never left the way it arrived, like thatJanuary afternoon, many years ago -I washed my...
It’s 20 minutes after 8 in the eveningAnd everyone is readying themselvesFor another wretched night of fragile safety.Air raid sirens bellow throughout Kiev and Kharkiv and all over UkraineAs the ceaseless roar of rockets and missilesDart throughout the merciless winter night.The huddled masses...
We were all once
born of the earth—
keeper of her breath,
kin to root and river,
to feather and fur,
to the anito, the diwata,
and the taw’t talun,
spirits...
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,...
(Thinking of my daughter on her first death anniversary)
It is a recurring thoughtAs lightsCast a shadowOn a familiar bookIn my gardenOn a restlessEarly morning.
What...