Adviser

Fiction by | May 9, 2009

Dako ang kahikurat ni Mrs. Luz Cuevas dihang kalit lang midaus-os gikan sa iyang gilingkoran ang iyang estudyanteng si Lily ug nalup-og sa salog.  Sa iyang kahikurat, wala dayon siya makalihok. Ang ubang mga klasmeyt sa dalagita nakuratan usab ug nagduha-duha sa pagduol. Ang unang nakalihok mao si Ariel kinsa misapwang kang Lily.

“Naunsa man ni siya?” pangutana ni Mrs. Cuevas.

“Mikalit ra man ni siya, Ma’am.” tubag ni Ariel.

Gipahigda ni Mrs. Cuevas si Lily sa iyang lamesa ug gisugo ang usa sa estudyante sa pagkuha og tubig. Pagbalik sa gisugo, iyang gipatuloan og white flower ang tasa sa tubig ug gipainom sa dalagita.

“Naunsa diay ka? pangutana ni Mrs. Cuevas dihang naulian ang dalagita.

“Nalipong ko, Ma’am. Lain akong tiyan,” tubag ni Lily.

“Basin naa kay sakit? Maayo pang mopahulay lang una ka karon,” ni Mrs. Cuevas.

“Sige, Ma’am, mouli na lang ko. Salamat, Ma’am,” tubag sa dalagita.

Continue reading Adviser

Kite

Nonfiction by | May 2, 2009

It was during the summer of 2001. I and my playmates were under the heat of the glaring sun busy making our “tabanog”. Arjan, who was four years younger than me was holding a blue plastic bag. Like any inquisitive kid, he kept on asking me, “Ate Banban unsaon paghimo ug tabanog?1” he didn’t stop pulling my skirt until I replied his childish query.

“It takes patience to make a kite Arjan. So just sit there, relax and wait for me to finish the kite I’m still making, okay?”, I carefully explained to him.

So he sat at the corner and waited for me. When I finally finished my hand made kite, I asked the little boy to structure his blue plastic bag. He was very excited that time. He drew a curve on his lips when I narrated him my first instruction, “Okay Arjan first you have to fold the bag in half and it should be flat and even.”

Continue reading Kite

Tambag sa Maya

Poetry by | May 2, 2009

maya
Ang pag-inusara dili aso nga makapahilak nga way lugar;
timan-i nga dili kini makumkom ug usahay di mahikit-an –
sama sa mga laraw ta nga di pirmi matuman…

Busa, ayaw ra tan-aw sa liki sa pwertahan kung adunay
migimaw nga kahayag gikan niini; buhia dayon ang suga
ug pahayagi imong matang nagalurat sa madugay.

Ang imong lawak dili hawla sa mayang bungol…

Continue reading Tambag sa Maya

Si Rakel ng Tawi-tawi

Poetry by | May 2, 2009

Bumuhos ang ulan
Isang takipsilim
Namatay si Francis M.

Sa tuktok, tawag ay Room C
Ngunit susi ay numero 303
Lumilipas ang gabi.

Di man lang patid ang umuugong na traysikel
Na laging natatanaw ni Rakel
May-ari ng hotel.

Habang si Mar at Lillian
Doon sa harapan
Nakatanaw sa hagdanan.

At hayun nga
Tapos na ang pagtunganga
May bisita galing Sanga-sanga.

Asalam Alaikum…
.Alaikum Asalam

Hanggang sa lumisan, bilin ang Sukran.

Continue reading Si Rakel ng Tawi-tawi

The Wall

Fiction by | April 26, 2009

the-wall
If my malicious stares had been able to do him some damage, he would have fallen a long time ago…

That wall has stood there for as long as I could remember. I don’t know why, but the other people do not seem to be even remotely bothered by his presence. I, on the other hand, am driven to what one might surmise as insanity by that accursed structure of brick.

Continue reading The Wall

The Farmer's Wife

Poetry by | April 26, 2009

(After Dorriane Laux’s “The Shipfitter’s Wife”)
 
At dusk, after you have plowed
the vast field—grains of green
scattered beyond my vision, I will
embraceyou,clingtoyou.
Be drowned again in the incense
of your sweat, taste it like
I have never met salt in my cooking before.

Tonight—
I’ll play another wife, after the soil
which everyday you avow
to marry and toil.
Tonight,
I’ll be waiting, languid on this bamboo bed,
to be plowed—
and become whole again.