Brighter than a thousand suns, / am become Death. Yet, as atoms split, re-configure, they sometimes moderate to re-arrange the glories in the bud, the splendours in the bush. Under a cleansing Heaven, life re-bIooms, charged and changed through a quiet, latent in that self- propelling spirit, there since our isIands’ birth.
(-kay Hidilyn Diaz)
‘Tong isport kong‘di ‘sinsikat ng básketból
Pagsasanay sa pagbuhat ng mabigát
Ilang kilo’t ilang timbang, búhat lahát
Nakakintal, sa katawan ‘tong paghukóm.
‘Tong paghukom, sa masel...
tiwarik at yukyok
ako’y nanahan
sa kweba ni Inang
tigib ng karimlan
ikasiyam na buwa’y
dumatal
supling ng uniberso’y
iniluwal
Nagkangipi’t
nagkabulbol
Saka naging
suhi
Sa sansina-
pupunang
Nagdadalang-
muhi.
Like a shoebox cramped with preserved
Fragments of quite a life lived by—the letters
From a childhood friend, puppy love remembered
A ribbon, the first book gifted,...
Everyone says that
Red is the color
Of love and passion
Which adds meaning to
lovers’ days and
inflames their hungry nights
Yet some of us forget
That red is blood
Personifying...
to Bea Yap Martinez
Banished from a house
in havoc, a broken vase,
a curtain on fire,
I tiptoe here to hide,
a child enisled
in a labyrinth of green,
crouching...
Akala ko, ang pag-iibigan
Ay pag-uusap lamang
At malagkit na tititigan.
Akala ko, ang pag-iibigan
Ay paghahawakan lamang ng kamay.
Akala ko ang pag-iibigan
Ay puro saya’t wala nang lumbay.
Akala...
Dahil ba ako'y bata
Ikaw ay walang awa?
Kung manlaban mahina,
Murang-mura ang diwa.
Dahil ba di mo kaya
Yaong mas matatanda,
Sa akin ibalandra
Ang 'di magawa-gawa.
Dahil nga ako'y bata,
Naiisip...