Poetry

To You, All Those Years Ago Little oneDo the yelling voices paralyze you?Just a while ago, she was singing you a gentle lullabyAs she cradled you in her armsHe was imitating a steam train from your favorite cartoonAs he brought to your lips a...

Ants in My Grandfather’s Pants When I was six, my grandfather recounted a storyabout ants and bayonets that my father never told me.During the Japanese Occupation in the 1940s,a rifle-wielding soldier chased him and my would-be fatheracross a field of tall blades of grass...

Stella relished each spoonful.Adobong saluyot and rice.First taste of it in five years.First time to clear her plate all clean. Between smiles and dancing eyes,“Asim! Sarap! Gusto ko pa!”A bit of Ilocana,Sighed certified genuine Ilocana lola. “I like carrots, broccoli,tomatoes, potatoes, kangkong,and I like saluyot,...

What do you do with fallen flowers on the ground       Dead brown leavesNo one ever dare look atShould I put them on the tombs of soldiers where the tears of their mothers have driedor their wives have diedNo more wars, my dearest.I refuse to...

“In the domain of music, birds have discovered everything.” —Olivier Messiaen who frequently used birdsong in his compositions. ~ Tweet from Berliner Philharmoniker there is no such thing as total silencein the place where i live.even if human tongues stop wagging,i still hear birds outside the...

The Santol Trees bear sweet or sour fruitsWe climb with our little hands and feetWe always scurry towards the treetopsAnd look down the world of our ancestorsThe Santol Trees flavor the big dreamsWe store in our boyhood jars at home