I already received my copy of the journal a few days ago. Now, I can post my poems here because they're not available online.
 |
| The International Poetry Review (IPR), Spring 2013 |
A Site to Behold
What a sight
Beauty, behold Manila
on the streets
a fresh Bawal Tumawid
warns you not to die
like many before you
See, we’ve tidied up
the slums with a makeshift wall
whitewashed, fresh as a new page
awaiting possibilities
a spattering of starfish, squid, corals
intricate pipelines, circles and squares
See, our new kalsada
fenced and repainted
a lane for motorcycles
a lane for buses
(more or less)
moving us forward
See, even the tindera
peddling candies on the sidewalk
applies her daily mascara
and smiles as a cat steals
the half-eaten fishball
she had for breakfast
~
Soup Bowls
At the other table
two men are talking
over plastic bowls of reheated
soup and cheap egg noodles.
Father and son perhaps
somewhat reminds me of home
only instead of fastfood plastic
we sipped soup from smoothed
coconut husks, mother frowning
across the bamboo table for I said,
the food is bland
there's not enough
rice. Those two men have finished
their meal, and here my soup has gone
cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment