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Poetry
I WRITE AND MAKE NO SOUND
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 Loves Saluyot
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,...
A Flower for Freedom
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...
Bohemian Rhapsody
“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...
Boyhood
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
A Study on Four Artists
I. Van Gogh’s Patch of Flowers
Flaming red, they gleam in the sunlight of Arles,The poppies in summer strewn along the paths.The artist shuffles by, weighed downBy the unbearable ache of wonder, a stripOf cloud taints the perfect cerulean sky.He looks up, raises a...
