Shepherd / Pastol ni Lamberto Antonio
At first glance, Lamberto Antonio’s “Pastol” feels like stepping into an Amorsolo painting. You know the ones – golden light, carabaos in rice fields, that idealized Filipino rural life we’ve all seen in museums.
Night Swimming
Night Swimming I practiced hurtlike how pearls are made,methodically, with attention,this art of controlled wounding. This is how. First,you learn to treasure what harms you,learn how beautiful things comefrom bodies in distress. But the ocean knows better.It knows the differencebetween cultivation and calcification,between keeping and containing.The pearls do not need your midnight tending. Watch how […]
The Witness
The Witness by April Pagaling (in reply to “Wala Nang Tao sa Sta. Filomena”) You stand in the stubbled field,a scarecrow stripped of purpose,shirt faded to the hue of stillborn harvests. January light knifes sideways,spilling shadows longer than your body,stretching beyond the momentof its making. I have witnessed this scene before.Escalante’s fencepost scarecrowdraped in a […]
Lesson on Flowers
The flower openswithout violence.This is what I learned in elementary,how resistance lives in softness.I stand in the kitchen, watchingpetals drift into my teacup,thinking of my mother’s handsfolding white sheets,how they will yellow with time.Everything palebecomes something else.In dreams, I am notthis daughter who changeswithout permission.I am the space betweenwhat she savedand what she lost.She told […]
Night Inventory
The absence of connection burns differently than the absence of touch. A poem about loneliness and how two bodies can share a bed while their hearts inhabit separate countries.
The Spider’s Gospel
Walking around in Sagada and finding this beautiful spider web. A meditation on grief and finding comfort in unexpected places and a reflection on rebuilding and survival.
Hamog ng Enero
The chill of January mornings in Marinduque and navigating the cold, thinking of unspoken young love. Discover how the Sea of Clouds intertwines with the warmth of a fleeting smile in this introspective poem.