Portrait of A Soldier
He heard it,
the sound of the sun
setting, as though
its edge had
scratched the sky,
bleeding as it sinks
into the horizon,
moments
before some bullets
flew to rest in him.
(Originally published in Eclectica Magazine)
Inside Subic Bay
I can still see the ships, in those palm trees.
They were like islands themselves, carrying
their own world, habits, constitutions, and histories,
like most of this country’s islands.
We did it all here, back then, in this humid place.
We were sweating of its sea of women, the language and mind
we could barely understand, especially its history that’s
thicker than their brotherhood in resistance against us.
The salty, slippery skins of those nights gave me a son,
mixed-blooded, just like this nation's blood. But I don’t intend to
find him, although I’ll be here for a while, maybe longer
than ever, until my last sun; because these islands
exploded in me a long time ago, into archipelagoes,
shrapnels that have melted in my blood, now exploding again,
deeper than what nostalgia craves, than what these
islands doesn’t want from me.
(originally published in Tertulia Magazine, November 2008)
Inside Subic Bay
I can still see the ships, in those palm trees.
They were like islands themselves, carrying
their own world, habits, constitutions, and histories,
like most of this country’s islands.
We did it all here, back then, in this humid place.
We were sweating of its sea of women, the language and mind
we could barely understand, especially its history that’s
thicker than their brotherhood in resistance against us.
The salty, slippery skins of those nights gave me a son,
mixed-blooded, just like this nation's blood. But I don’t intend to
find him, although I’ll be here for a while, maybe longer
than ever, until my last sun; because these islands
exploded in me a long time ago, into archipelagoes,
shrapnels that have melted in my blood, now exploding again,
deeper than what nostalgia craves, than what these
islands doesn’t want from me.
(originally published in Tertulia Magazine, November 2008)
ILLUST: Photoshop airbrush on archival photo by MLK
