We

You,
Wearing your smile
Thinking your thoughts
Walking inside my head
Daintily skipping barbed memories
That crop up when I wrestle with sleep.

You,
Twinkling your eyes
Laughing your laugh
Roaming around my dreams
Touching my cheek, pretending
That a smudge caught your eye.

I,
Whispering my sighs
Asking you to stay
Willing the night to go on
It didn’t, you didn’t–
Now all I have is a shiny morning.
And an empty room.

For Viola (the Unsinkable)

The last time I heard her sing
She had her arms around me
Her voice took me to secret places
Where no lover of hers has ever been.

With my head on her shoulders,
My eyes seeing everything,
I listened to her singing
About the night she heard Caruso sing.

Through her songs she told me stories
Of her longings and of her fears
Of heartbreaks and goodbyes
Of getting old and being alone.

She sang like it’s the most natural thing
She sang as though she didn’t want to stop
She sang as if through singing she can bring back
Those faded memories of what we used to have.

So with my head on her shoulders,
And my eyes seeing everything
I listened to her singing
About the night she heard Caruso sing.

Black*

*inspired by Nina Simone

Black is the color of my true love’s hair
Those long strands of silk slithering round her neck,
Like a waterfall cascading down her back.

I tried to drown in her tresses
One balmy night when,
With my soul in my hand,
I dove through the wisps of her hair
And lost myself;

If I should die, I said to myself,
Let it be like this–
Quiet, unobtrusive,
Smelling of languid days and secret passions
Enveloped in the darkness of my true love’s hair.

Gasping for air, I broke the surface
And found myself watching her peaceful sleep
In her make-believe world

She opened her eyes, and drank the full sight of me
I wanted to jump right into those dark pools
And swim there forever,
While she brushed from her face
Those errant locks of hair.

But if I should live, I have no other wish
Than to always see the wind in her hair
While she, gazelle-like, runs after fireflies
Hidden in misty evenings–
Evenings as black as my true love’s hair.

Check & Mate

Seven evenings I’ve wondered
How you can serenely sip your cup of Earl Grey,
(Like a washed-up drunk wetting his horn)
While speed-reading your filthy tabloid,
And completely ignoring me.

Seven mornings I wake up
With this bitter-weird sensation
Because my tongue strangely tastes like tea
(Which forces me to ask this tawdry question)
Have you been kissing me?

Seven days and seven nights,
One week of wondering and waking,
Maybe we should just continue this game
(And perhaps before it ends),
I would somehow stumble across your name.

Fragments

I don’t know why sentences fall
Off in the middle.
As if the bridge connecting the subject to
The predicate has collapsed.

Like the paragraph I
Constructed yesterday afternoon–
Which started with two
Pillars of fragmented phrases
And ended up with four.
Instead of the twin
Towers, I was left
Holding a flat mall.

It must be habit I suppose,
Because even when dialling
Your number, or calling
Your name, I find
My voice trailing off before
We can say our hello’s.

Self-portrait

Long haired boy
Why the misty mountain stare?
Your sigh is a heavy blanket-
From a bottomless well.
Your best years are past,
You’re rooted to your spot-
Facing the wind;
Your friends they have babies,
They go home to their wives
You have yourself—
And your queen-sized bed.
You are graying,
You are receding,
You are shrinking;
You maintain you’re okay,
Your eyes aimed at the city
Looking for mountains
They’re not there–
Though you see them clearly
Dark and blue and brooding,
Next to that skyscraper.
Long haired boy
You need to cut your hair.

Sana

Sana, pagkatapos ng kaganapang ito
Masasabi kong may kabuluhan ang lahat
At hindi lang dahil kailangang mangyari o gawin
Dahil parang nahihirapan na akong huminga.

Sana ang kabataang kaybilis dumaan
Ay hindi nasayang na parang tubig
Na nabuhus sa tabi ng mabatong daan
Kung saan walang halamang maaaring mamulaklak

Sana bago mamatay ang sindi ng kandilang ito
Makita man lang kita
Kahit sa malayo
Kahit masakit.