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…)
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…)
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…)
… mourn a woman’s
bitter lot: to give birth to men
who kill and are killed.
Grace Monte de Ramos
That morning alone
he had sunk ten warships, downed four planes,
marched countless armies across unseen
territories, borders mapped only in his mind.
Gunpowder and ash stained his arms and shirt,
across one chubby cheek, a brave streak of red. (more…)
Babae akong namumuhay na mag-isa
Hiwalay sa asawa
Matandang Dalaga
Kerida
Puta.
Ang aking pag-iisa’y
Batik na ituturing ng aking lipunan
Latay na pabaon ng nakaraan,
Pilat na taglay hanggang sa kasalukuyan. (more…)