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Poetry
Geography of our Melancholies
For Mariko
This inconsolable distance
Between our lips
Separated by unfamiliar cities
And impassable seas;
This insatiable wonder for the unknown
That grows every day in morbid anticipation
Of the smell of your newly washed hair at sunrise
And the taste of your sweat in a tropical afternoon
Submerging my heart in...
(free) will
The universe has no idea how powerful its inhabitants are.
With will given, they are free to live on their own.
What privilege has this earth given us?
We step on its lands and call ourselves human.
With will given, they are free to live on their...
Blink Twice to Mean Yes
It’s not language nor the attempt
at a joke: it’s lack of understanding
that dooms the animal crossing the road.
Still, the same oblivion awaits it
inside the slaughterhouse. Therefore
claims should not just be made
within reason, but more with respect
to circumstance. Like the assault
of a bird’s presence...
To my bereaved beloved
I want my body to be cremated.
Weigh my ashes as against my flesh.
The difference would be of my soul’s.
Much of my leaving soul is water
from each of my cells after the long years of lingering
edema. Much of my soul would be water
gushing like...
Coming home
walking along a familiar road
while seeing a new and different world
your home calls you a stranger
homesick to what he knows and holds
while seeing a new and different world
the fragments of history and memories,
homesick to what he knows and holds
look for a shelter; a...
Rinsing rice
I fed two takal of rice
Into the newly washed pot.
Scooped water for rinsing.
Fumbled, stirred the seeds
Of Tatay’s perspiration.
Spilled the milky water.
Poured out slowly until it subsided.
I saw Nanay outside
Retrieving the laundered clothes.
I remembered what she uttered a while ago:
“Noy, when will we be...
