Tag: John Bengan

Armor (excerpt)

Fiction by | January 8, 2017

(Armor won 1st Prize in the Short Story for English category of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Literary Awards in 2013.)

The week Ronnie was planning to die, one of his neighbors paid him a visit. Ronnie had just come back from the seamstress, bringing home a newly mended sheath dress he would wear for the pageant, when Oliver showed up.

“The Death Squad,” Oliver said. “They’re after you.”

Ronnie considered what reactions were possible. He would back away from the Mylar-covered table where Oliver was nursing his coffee. He would warn him that he didn’t appreciate this kind of joke, not after bodies had been found in empty, grassy lots around Mintal. Instead, Ronnie soaked up his neighbor’s silence, leaned on the refrigerator and lit a cigarette.

Where was the Death Squad when he regularly handed out shabu to the crew of wiry boys who had hung out at his beauty salon? They were hired guns, the Death Squad, who used to go after drug pushers, but lately they’d been taking down street gang members, crystal meth users, petty thieves.
Continue reading Armor (excerpt)

Si Alunsina milakaw nga gapasingulan

Poetry by | November 1, 2015

translated from the poem by Conchitina Cruz

Lisod mingawon nimo sa ting-init, ang imong tingog nasulat sa tibuok nga katin-aw sa nagabhian nga langit, ang mga bitoon naglaraw sa bugtong mong panugon: pauli na. Matag gabii, akong tutokan ang anino sa gabukad nakong payong. Nagpabilin ko sa sulod, nagpalayo sa mga tamboanan.

Karong adlawa, giingnan ko sa balita nga gitakda kang mingawon. Akong giwiwi ang mga tabil ug naghangad.

Unya, inig ang kadalanan modanlog sa imong kaguol, sul-obon ko akong sapatos, ihumod ang kaugalingon sa imong luha. Lisod dili mingawon nimo kon ang nagabhiang langit maamang, kon imong kahilom mopanaw sa akong mga aping, sama sa hangyo.

Dili tika mapasaylo. Kadtong adlawa, kon wala ka nagdumili, hatagan unta tika’g gasa. Ako untang ikulit kining akong gugma sa bato.

—
Si John Bengan nagatudlo og pagsulat ug katitikan sa Unibersidad sa Pilipinas Mindanaw. Nagpuyo siya sa Dakbayan sa Dabaw. Unang napatik kining hubad sa Kabisdak (http://balaybalakasoy.blogspot.com/).