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Philippines Graphic Reader

Washout

I So in a fit of righteous anger I washed the pots pans plates bowls knives spoons glasses even cleaned the kitchen sink and the drawers, which I haven’t been able to do for a long time. The leftover food I did not care to save for the dog. I...

Threads of Courage

The night the war reached Cebu, Maria woke to the sound of distant explosions. It was April 1942 and she had just turned fourteen years old. Maria had known fear before—of the dark, of illness, of school exams—but this was different. The air...

Encounter at the S.C. Field

Mornings do not rise Above this leafy prison. Time hangs midnoon Over sharp sugarcane leaves, Striking against the downpour Of cruel sunrays. All the sounds enclosing Are the rustle of the peering enemy And the striking of our espading Against the earth's unflinching deadness, Whose parchedness is under our tongue And whose flame is...

WHERE FLOWERS BLOOM

Today is the last Friday of March, and it is stifling hot over here on the island, its jungle mountains overlooking the Pacific seaboard. A dry spell is forecast to last until October. The heat drones heavy and dull and hangs like a...

Price of a Dream

“You’re free to dream,” is what’s often heard For wishful thinking seems to be done daily And nobody had to pay a dime to keep it in their minds Or really is it so? The price of a dream never comes cheap It has, and always has been,...

An Affair to Remember

Monsignor Sullivan was seated at his glass-topped desk, the letter from Vikings Cruise on a linen stationery before him. Should he take up the offer of a free cruise in exchange for serving as chaplain for two weeks on the ship? He was wearing...

Random Pickings

The Mysteries beside the Brook, under the Tree

In which the inevitable led me to a new friend. I died alone, and I don’t regret it. Not even once. Death is a strange...

Jawo’s Last Game

He sat on the bench at the Coliseum, feeling a bit cold, so different from the times he would preside in the center of...

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...

After the Ascension

(Short Fiction in the Style of Joaquin Antonio Penalosa’s God’s Diary) When the Cherubim settled down and the fluttering of wings turned into soft rustlings,...