The International Poetry Review: Soup Bowls and A Site to Behold

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.

Up Next, Two Poems to Appear in the International Poetry Review (IPR)

Whew! This has been a busy week for me. Battling sore throat. Another round of antibiotics. Several active accounts to write copy for. Cakes I baked and want to bake.

I haven't been training Muay Thai for a while now. I miss it. But I need to get well first.

This busy week brought me some good news, too. I got two poems accepted in the International Poetry Review (IPR). "Soup Bowls" and "A Site to Behold" are set to appear in the journal's spring issue this June 2013. IPR is published by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

From their website:

Founded in 1975 by Evalyn Pierpoint Gill and dedicated to her belief that the world will be a better place if we cross language barriers to hear the voice of the poet in different countries, International Poetry Review publishes poems from contemporary writers in all languages, with facing English translations. A portion of every issue is dedicated also to work originally in English.