Category Archive for: kawomenan

kultura

the voice of celebrity: love and alex gonzaga, life and bianca gonzalez*

I will always spend some hard-earned cash on books proclaimed as “bestsellers” – not by the non-existent bestseller list of local books (because we compete with uh, Fifty Shades of Grey), but based on the ever reliable, absolutely credible opinion of the National Bookstore ate manning the cash register.

These two books are placed among the magazines at the cashier’s counter, and with one hot pink cover, and another that’s filled with eye-catching illustrations, these books easily catch one’s eye.

Dear Alex, Break Na Kami. Paano?! Love, Catherine by Alex Gonzaga (ABS-CBN Publishing 2014), and Paano Ba ‘To?! How to Survive Growing Up by Bianca Gonzalez (One Mega Group Inc. 2014), are less than 200 bucks each, and as per the Ate kahera at the National Bookstore in Robinson’s Magnolia: “Sobrang benta po nito Ma’am. Laging nauubusan.” She was of course referring to Gonzaga’s book in bright pink, with a poodle and a photograph of her on the cover, a face now made familiar by TV.

About Gonzalez’s book meanwhile, the Ate kahera in National Bookstore Shangri-La Mall said: “Maraming bumibiling teenager Ma’am.” (more…)

radikalchick.lit

competition* #WomensMonth2015 #IAmNotMyShoes

Here’s to the friendship
that could have been ours:
wife of my lover,
lover of my husband,
lover of my lover.

For women at both ends
are always rivals:
smiling for points
at a beauty contest,
icing the cake
at a cooking competition,
sprinting for the gold
as they race to a man’s heart. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

different women* #IAmNotMyShoes #WomensMonth2015

Six months since she’s arrived
And yet she does not speak.
She must have been chained;
This I guess from the bruises
On her wrists. But she will not
Let me touch them.
She trembles at the sight
Of tall men, more so at those
With shadows on their lips. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

relationships and freedom* #WomensMonth2015 #IAmNotMyShoes

I.
You are the earth and all that earth implies:
The gravity that ballasts me in space,
The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries
For food and shelter against devouring days.
You are the earth whose orbit marks my way
And sets my north and south, my east and west,
You are the final elemental clay
The driven heart must turn to for its rest. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

the violence of choice* #WomensMonth2015 #IAmNotMyShoes

To this harlequinade
I wear black tights and fool’s cap
Billiken, make me three bright masks
For the three tasks in my life.
Three faces to wear
One after the other
For the three men in my life. (more…)