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Poetry

On Sundays…and Belonging

On Sundays and belonging,And when I used to mess around with Lolo’s typewriter:Clicking and clacking the worn-out buttons, it is legacySounding against my stubby child fingers. You would often tell me stories about Mindoro:Of your father and the town hall—how he would walk a...

Tropical Sundews

this is the timewhen the greens are greener than beforeas above so belowthe midges regret worshippingthe false god of all false beingsthe dewdrops and dropletsof this rainforest in early mornings they longed what it felt to prayand kneel before a deityears forgiven they could...

In One of My Lives, I Became A Drone

so I asked the queen ant: “beforeI mate with your young queen, may Iat least have the indulgence ofmating with all of the femaleants here, since I’m the last maletoday and they probably need me?” And the queen ant said, “it is use-less, you...

Naked

I’ll wear nothingbut my trembling desirethe wild beat of my pulsethe lingering whispers of my past. I’ll wear nothingbut the ache of my lost love the sweet sigh of my first joy The ecstatic cry of happiness. I’ll wear nothing but the fire in my eyesnaked in your...

Grandma

Her hands quiver from sustained pressing of the beads. When her voice starts to rise, the light of the kerosene lamp amplifies from an entirely lambent glow, illuminating the details of her room. Mound of frass and dead winged ants on the altar; archaic cross nailed askew on a bole. Might these, however...

Inverted Horizons

The sea and the sky Swap their eternities The waves with the clouds And everywhere Fishes fly birds swim Farmers cast seines Fishers sow seeds Waterways counterflow Waterfalls go into reverse All of this unbeknown To Siri Alexa and Cortana.

Random Pickings

Shadow in the Garden

(Thinking of my daughter on her first death anniversary) It is a recurring thoughtAs lightsCast a shadowOn a familiar bookIn my gardenOn a restlessEarly morning. What...

Rush Hour

How’s life, old buddy Between seventy and eighty, eighty and ninety Perpetually in a hurry Heading for the cemetery Amid emotional poverty Are we racing against time Or the lack of...

When I think of leaving, I remember my daughter the night we lost the elections

I’m tired of this shithouse of a country:its coddling with thieves and tyrants, its short memory, its naïveté, its misplacedforgiveness. I got one hand on...

A Prayer for Leni Robredo

Lord, there’s no day that can carry the load Of living without the help of your grace.  No sun will shine on a land without hope.  The...