Poetry

(Philippine Tarsier Foundation in Loboc, Bohol) Charles, next in lineTo the throne of England,Held him: Palm-sized proto-simian,Tiny tea saucers for eyes,Mouth with needle teeth, More ancient than anyEmperor or King. Perhaps, becauseThey both have bigEars, the maomag Was named after itsIllustrious visitor. Or maybe becauseBoth proto-simianAnd English royal Are rare;...

Bumebenjonson: Hey Lady I could have been your lover and you know it, Mama always said that I’m handsome And talented, a dream come… (wait for it)True: your better lover and much better poet.Too...

After my mother died, I decided to gather twine from her frayed skirts and braid them into wreaths. I discovered that each skirt had a story:  The white one she wore when she married my father.  It was a civil wedding, not a church...

I read your nameWritten on a wounded treeBarely standing on the lakeshoreI gaze at the sadness of its former shadowThat remains in the memory of birdsAnd in the spirit of the waterBravely kissing traces of its roots I read your nameWritten on a child’s...

In Harmony with Caravaggio Imagine their disbelief: these two men,perhaps fishermen like most of the twelve,beholding the stranger do the familiarblessing, the breaking of bread.One half-stood in fright, nearlytoppling his chair, breath taken away. What would you have doneif you were there, ensconced in the...

Stones There is an old man.Waking, his heart beats fast, someone’s running after someone.He can’t remember his dreams these days.He fixes himself for the 25,719th morning.Well, he tries as much as he could.He locks the steel gate of his daughter’s house.He goes to the...