A Möbius Trip

The shortest distance between us
is the line that begins on my palm,

travels past a row of cubicles,
exits the revolving doors
and goes around the corner
of the Open University buildings;

meanders along the highways
onto the southern tollway
then with the crisscrossing wires
of the Manila Metro Transit rails;

makes as sharp U-turn in front of my parents’ house,
doubles back the length of EDSA,
follows the lines on the tarmac
and bisects the Pacific;

weaves a path across fields
of winter wheat stalks,
bounces off the satellite dish
of our experimental station,

pointing straight
into the nocturnal sky
where it tails a comet
revolving around the sun;

before it falls back to Earth,
traces the serpentine shadow
of a Teotihuacán pyramid
and zigzags between corn rows in the sun;

connects dots of summer sand in Acapulco
then trails after a freighter
working its ponderous way
along the Ring of Fire;

until it turns just south of China
to enter the mouth of Pasig,
and perseveres upstream
to traverse the width of a lake;

onward, across grids of rice paddies―
all the way back to the back-door,
past empty kitchen stools
and over-filled suitcases,

only to find itself again
beginning on your open palm.

desde IRRI al CIMMYT
y viceversa (2009)

—-
Genevieve Mae Aquino was born in Manila but calls Davao her home. She has a clutch of diplomas in molecular biology and genetics — now studing for another one. She was fellow for Poetry in English at
the INWW, ANWW, IYAS Creative Writing Workshops.