Poetry by Vanessa Almeria | July 19, 2009
Nilingkod , nibilangkad
Gipatung-an ang ulo sa kaguran
Gikablot ang gipikas nga lubi
Ibabaw sa lababo-
Ang unod puti, gahi
Gikulob ang lubi,
Gihinay- hinay ug kagod
sa gikapoy nga mga kamot
gikudkod,
gikudkod,
gikudkod ug samot
hantud mitulo ang singot
sa iyahang dughan
paadto sa iyahang uranay
Nonfiction by Vanessa Almeria | 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.”
Poetry by Vanessa Almeria | August 10, 2008
I sit at the center,
the red metal stool
bearing my weight.
the girl in blue stares
at me with tiger eyes.
I face the other way, dragging
the stool as
it screeches—
my thoughts exactly.
The man in eyeglasses
shouts, “what’s the central image?”
the girl in blue nods,
not once
but twice
as the man hammers
my poems
on the table.
I face them,
carrying
my own weight as
he hurls the sheets
up in the air.
Our eyes witness
my syllables
fall
like the loosened
leaves
of a tree.