Poetry by Melissa Peñaflor | November 18, 2007
On this afternoon
the sky glows a soft amber
and everything under it obliges
and takes on a gentler, kinder hue
–even the dry path that stretches before me
–the gray sandbar that has led me home all these years
sheds some of its harshness
and I tread it with the warm, easy feeling that
I belong,
On this afternoon
I belong
Poetry by Saquina Karla Guiam | October 28, 2007
Little girls, little girls
Dancing by the breakwater
Their faces bloated like balloons
With electric plugs tucked behind their ears
Their eyeballs starting to fall from their sockets
Smiles turn to sneers
Maggots crawl all over their skin
Skin and bones visible through the naked eye
Blood on their clothes never lie
And whenever people pass the breakwater by midnight
Little girls with decayed teeth, torn-out clothes, electric plugs by their side and holes in their chests
Will come out to play with you
And make you wish they were locked in their baggage.
Madaling araw kung dumalaw ang kalungkutan
Sumasabay siya sa marahas na haplit ng hangin
at ragasa ng ulan
Katabi mo siya sa iyong paggising.
Muli,
Hahagilapin ang mga lumang larawan,
Bubuksan ang baul at babasahing muli
ang mga lumang liham,
Dadampian ng malamyos na halik
ang mga alaalang naiwan.
Madaling araw kung dumalaw ang kalungkutan
Mapipilitan kang magtimpla ng kape’t
Almusalin ang agam-agam.
Wala na ang dating lamig.
Naglaho na ang gubat.
Subalit may naiwan pa ring halina
at kulay ang kalikasan:
Sinusuyod ng makapal na hamog ang hita’t dibdib ng kabundukan
Habang banayad na naglalakbay ang puti-abuhing ulap
sa ibabaw ng amoy-pinipig na palayan.
Sa pagitan ng maalikabok at pakiwalkiwal na daan
Nagpapaligsahan sa pag-aagaw ng pansin
ang mga ligaw na sanplawer
sa malawak na plantasyon ng tubo, saging at pinya
At sa makikisig na kabayong sa kaburula’y
Waring mga tanod ng Bathala sa lupa.
(Para kay Teng)
Kung nanakawan ka’t nagising
Na wala na ang iyong pitaka, relos o singsing
o dili kaya’y ang nakasabit na pantalong mamahalin,
Saan ibubunton ang hinaing?
Sa aso bang di man lang tumahol at nanggising,
sa bombilya bang antukin
o sa bakod na kay daling lundagin?
Sino ang sisisihin?
Ay! Sana’y di na ako nagising
at ngayo’y parang torong sumisingasing
Ay! Ayaw ko nang muli pang malasing!
Poetry by Karla Stefan Singson | October 7, 2007
Sinfully glazed
With warm sugar
Cubed bananas
Sit lap-to-lap
Overlapping
Competing for my
Attention
I pinched the topmost
Piece with the fork
In my hand
Some juice squirting
Poetry by Margot Marfori | September 30, 2007
ten minutes before mass
you slip through the church doors
wrapped with time
you watch the sermon drone on
lifting its message
heavy with guilt
towards the blue
eggshell-painted arches
pillars pointing long white fingers
like stems, elongating
the shadows behind you
you bow your head
and close your eyes
in a brief murmur of amens
golden censers and fragrant incense
chasten your secret sins
dissolving the end of words
as your fingers trace the cross
laid bare on your withered chest
forty minutes later
you step over autumn’s dry leaves
feeling less brittle and
lighter for now.
Poetry by Carlotta de Pio | September 23, 2007
Half way between
one corner to the next
the soul walks right through neon
lighted city traffic
across the space where the doors
of the blue stained-glass cathedral opens
to walls painted
faces of innocent angels
their eyes chipped off
from age
looking vaguely at
the years passing.
Every thousand years or so
clouds gather above,
voices echo in chorus with
wind and the honk of city buses
all holy hymns, Hallelujah
Wandering their ears linger to
listen awhile then go
their busy ways to the beat of jazz
Beyond the cathedral window
one surely knows
Heaven is in there.