Tag: Jermafe Kae Angelo-Prias

Instrumental

Poetry by | April 26, 2014

Instrumental
Our room gets smaller,
walls wanting to embrace each other
pouting every detail of that wallpaper as if to kiss
or crumple the silences in between
or fold it, neatly as if origami beds and chairs
dreaming to fly with cranes and paper planes
out your window–
your every breath reminds me how
suffocated words want to escape and be born again
with voices, to speak up the reasons why
this room is getting smaller,
why this room has no more music
only lullabies slowly repeating each goodbyes
so slowly that I can spell it out
with the lyrics of an empty love song.

—
Jermafe Kae Angelo-Prias is a graduate of Creative Writing in University of the Philippines Mindanao. She was a fellow at the 2012 Iligan National Writers workshop and 2005 Davao Writers Workshop. Some of her works have appeared in SunStar Davao and the Best of Dagmay anthology.

Hilot

Poetry by | February 10, 2013

Back in my hometown where coconuts,
tall or dwarf
are massage oil
to correct the fetal position
before giving birth
with a bottle
of marinated root herbs.
Manang Iya’s rough hands moistened
with oil and scents, whispered
in my stomach her myth
and fragmented prayers
and broken syntax
of the Catholic church
two blocks
away,
halfway,
faraway
from my grandmother’s old house
where Chico trees guard the night,
its evergreen leaves
and white subtle bell-like flowers
bearing earthy brown-skinned ballyhooed fruits
that every morning, I pick up,
one by one, some half-eaten
by night birds, some ripe, unripe
while sweeping
the terrace with silhig ting-ting,
leaves scattered
on the ground, coloring
the yard: a world from my hospital window
the same evergreen colored ground
I watched for the longest now
and the longest even now
of days in this bed with a bandaged stomach
now emptied
with scars and stretch marks
in an off-color hue.
—
Jermafe Kae Angelo-Prias is a housewife and a graduating student of the University of the Philippines in Mindanao. She is a fellow in the 2012 Iligan National Writers workshop.

Villanelle For A Bumpy Ride

Poetry by | October 4, 2009

All my mothers will hum your lullaby
Hold tight as we ride the habal-habal.
And they will all forgive when you first cry.
Quietness falling, not failing the skies
Hold tight as we bump along the rough road.
All my mothers will hum your lullaby.
I will not pass the Abortion Road and die,
Daddy will drive us home before midnight
And they will all forgive when you first cry.
Stars blink and sing, and so do I
Listening to your heartbeat with my heartbeat
All my mothers will hum your lullaby.
I pray and am blessed; these tears will dry
You’ll breathe in all the poems that I will write,
They will all forgive when you first cry.
Grip tighter, for darkness will say goodbye,
Just sleep inside, my sweetest mistake
All my mothers will hum your lullaby,
And they will all forgive when you first cry.

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