The Philippines Graphic Reader

The first and only magazine on Philippine literature in English

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Eight Legs Is All

It’s unfair. With small bodies, they move in all directions. Once a leg gets broken—which usually happens when they resist to be caught—they have...

The King who Had Nothing

“What makes a man a king?” A young pauper asked as he sat on his father’s lap. They sat meekly on the side of...

The News of You

Briefly, just after college, I left my parents’ house, thinking independence was a priceless thing. It was worth it, I liked to remind myself, especially...

THE FIREFLIES

This tale is for Mark Brownrigg It had been a strange week in this village on top of the Antipolo hills. The days were cool,...

Don’t Follow Me, I Don’t Even Know Where I’m Going

“The past is not the past. The future doesn’t exist. It’s a made-up idea. Every mapping what we do of the future is a...

NIGHT ADDICT

For months following the death of his father, the boy did not sleep. Not a single wink for a single hour, every day, every...

Examination

It was two p.m. on a weekday, and she was in the city, in leather shoes that pinched, a hot polyester acrylic blend blouse...

Killing Trees Softly

They were killing us softly it hurt so bad.  Softly, slowly, exceedingly painful. Think of an open wound left to rot under the sun. Dust and...

Three Baggies, One for Each of Us

“Did you get it?” Tobi asked, though he already knew the answer just by the look on Jimwel’s face. “Three baggies, one for each of...

What Are Years?

“It’s now or never,” said Marie, who’s in her mid-twenties, with a rugged face, vivacious and full of urgency. She took her friend’s right...

The Wonderer in the Age of Fake

Like any 12-year-old, Angel likes to read various posts on social media. Some she finds funny. Others, interesting or informative. But sometimes she is...

Seven Excerpts toward a Theory of Musicology (For Elizabeth)

Our estrangement It begins with a boat trip of course, as all things do, and where else but to Dumaguete, city in the south, year...

The Ship

“He actually did all this?” Kyla whispered to herself as she searched through old papers hidden behind the boxes below her father’s side of...

The Root of All Evil

UNDER THE UNFORGIVING MID-MORNING SUN, the habal-habal revved with one throaty growl as it crawled its way through the insanely rough terrain, its tires...

Somebody Else

“Please note the date meds are first taken, observe and report effects at next session. They should do things where focus is not them but...

Everything Taken Together Has the Weight of Heaven

For Padmapani Perez I have often imagined meeting Alicia again, the woman Angelico swore would love him for the rest of his life. As if...

The Scent of Coconuts

JANUARY 1, 1924, shortly after the stroke of midnight, was when Luzviminda Cruces was born into this earth in barrio Bunot in a town...