Short Wings

(Image by Luc Viatour from www.upload.wikimedia.org)

Live impermanent of cycles
Memories transparent shimmering
In the dim of sun, gloom of moon
Sisters of dragons flying low, waiting vainly
Of knights blue armor diving smokeless jets
Amassing not for war but for love, peace

A creature that dies everyday cannot go extinct
It lives dead between vampires and recall
Forgetting nothing, eating air
Breeding, springing forth gushers
Nymphs and imps watching
Long may you fly, bye

He Wakes Up Neurotic

(Image from farm5.static.flickr.com)

He gets up happy, they say
Smiling from day to day
Never see a frown on his mug, grey

He blows the trumpet divine
Angel or strumpet, he declines
Sat on a bench, C’s on his side
Mo’ money they plead
The babies they bleed

His arm is strong
His fingers are steel
But soft as velvet
They string the reel

Notes fly into space
In between
What’s in your face
Race to the edge
Plant veggies
Eat the soil of Eden

It’s a wonderful…
What the hell, are you?
Don’t speak, it’s a mouthful
Didn’t your ma teach you?

(Image from davegranlund.com)

The Arrogance of Stephen Hawking

The arrogance of Stephen Hawking
is the insistence of humans that they matter
more than something else.
Big Bang, theoretical physicist, which came first
the physicist or the bang?

Hawking once straddled the faith fence
not committing to one side.
Later changed his mind
with gravity pulling his ego down
to the molten core
where everything melts
including event horizons.


(Image from divorceinsurance.files.wordpress.com)

Did you do it for love?/Did you do it for money?/Did you do it for spite?/Do you think you had to, honey? – The Long Run/The Eagles

Marrying for Money

Not expecting marrying for money’d be this bad
No sex for love, no sex for love
Security, comfort, prestige -- unworth the air printed on
Sow the seeds of lust, barren feelings field
Birds, insects feast on unburied seeds
Thorny plants choke seedlings
The foolish man builds a house on mud
The foolish woman believes middle class is sad
Dead is sad, indifference mad
Not expecting marrying for money’d be this bad

Tiger Through the Rose Bush

(Image from wwwdelivery.superstock.com)

The blood the prick
Thorn elects
Goads is a gift on the land
Parched by invaders from up north
Two footed and four

Cat of stripes and rare gripes
Ambles through thickets swims through flows
It minds not the cuts remind it it’s beast
The biggest one on any block

Growling mewling mood dictates
Humidity this deep calls for waters
From below and above

Tiger beauty and death
Is god to the famished

Her Heart Broke

Her heart broke like the bottles of alcohol
she flung to the wall when drunk.
Not a drop of firewater
until they took all her children away --
to assimilate, she was told.

From the red man’s land
to the frontiers of abuse and beyond.
Her husband didn’t say much except, Gute!

Her eldest child never met her.
She died when eight wasn’t even nine,
too young to leave, too old in soul.
She had seven, lost them all.

Pagsakay ni Inday sa Multicab

(Image from lh5.ggpht.com)

Pagsakay ni Inday sa multicab
Napakong siya
Gipungngan niya iyang agay
Apan niluha iyang mata
Dili siya buot nga madaut iyang postura
Maanyag ug madanihon
Lumoy ang pamayhon
Sihag iyang blouse
Itom iyang sayal
Dili matago ang tinguha
Ang pangandoy sa mga panglantaw
Ubos ug ibabaw

Yes, No Isosceles

(Image from http://aleph0.clarku.edu)

Summer is never gone from this land
It merely hides during rain,
sneaking a peek at the sky,
waiting for the sun to smile.

The times you think it’s fall,
you are reminded September
wears different clothes near the equator.

You shine in your own way, sunbeam.
Dropping the baby blubber
to be a young woman,
growing miles of legs
that make your mother look skywards,
your pale brown eyes stop boys in their tracks.

Your sister and I share September
the same way your brother and mom
tarry with January.

Facile rhymes and ignored cadences
make it easy to write verses.
Same way three fourths through the year
bring the smell of Christmas near
and carols to the doorstep.

(Image from absolutechinatours.com)

The Emperor’s Reign

Refusing to go
after the king;
they fall over each other
declining chance
to say something.
Too brilliant even for the sun,
Too smart for the report of a gun.
I remain alone
on top of my mountain


(Image from images.bridgeman.co.uk)

The Emperor’s Rain

It comes without
so much as a by your leave.
It falls soft, pitter patter,
or hard, an invading army
hungry for gore glory.

It is food.
It is death.
It is sink or swim,
stuck in the mud.

It is an old lover,
the only friend;
when gods
abandon Olympus
fearful of fear
and a child’s smile.

Nick of Time

(Image from weheartit.com)

The dawn she was born
A star fell from the void
The breeze whispered her name
Mari, her eyes a gift of the sun
But with a mouth that needs soaping
She gives warmongers pause
Wakes her father at 5
Telling him a fire rages
He jolts out of day sleep
Runs downstairs, sees no smoke
It’s her spirit that burns
From the top of the landing she smirks
Mission accomplished

The Green Fairy

(Image from images2.layoutsparks.com)

The green fairy haunts dreams
Colours the paper this is written on
She flies on gossamer winds
Bleeds chlorophyll when cut
By the wit of poets

You can look at her
You can smell her
You can drink her
She is whatever you want her to be

Banned in some climes
For her noxious notoriety
They changed their minds
With the new dawning
The new twisting of meanings
That tint windows with wishes

The Girl With a Red Balloon in a Black & White World

(Image from laurenusher.com)

The girl with a red balloon in a black & white world
walks the streets bled of lonely.
She thinks what a lovely white dress she wears.
And she smiles.

She knows lips have to be ruby red to be pretty.
But grey is OK.
And her pout stays put.
An extra spring is added to her skip.

She almost lets go of the balloon string.
And she frowns.
Her fingers tighten.

I will not stop writing paeans to the moon

(Image from goldtent.net)

I will not stop writing paeans
to the moon
The same way I can’t stop
getting up at dawn to pee

This mistress’ cruelty is pain
that strengthens
Lengthens life, sweet torture

Cool to the eye, warm to thought
Clouds cover its repose
singing melodies that singe

Ang Kulafu ug si Noy Andoy

(Image from gingmaganda.multiply.com)

Pagkalaay kung walay tagay
Busa nag-inusara na lang og yarok sa Kulafu si Noy Andoy
Nagkadugay, nagkahinay, dili na kalahutay
Dali na mahubog ang tiguwang
Apan tag tu’tu’o ra man gihapon ka botelya iyang mahurot
Gustong malimtan ang kamingaw
Napu’o na ka tuig sukad nipanaw si Nang Pining
Mga anak nila minyo ug galahi na
Ma-o ning si Raha Kulafu na lang ang iyang kanunayng kuyog
”Shot, nyor!”
Hangtud mahubog, mohigda daplin sa da’an gabilangkad
Nawalis and purol, walay putos, kita’ng lagay

Trinity Far

(Crucifixion by Salvador Dali)

Jesus Pose

Down on the ground
Arms spread-eagle
Legs figure four
The lamb, black
Head shaved
Goatee mocking
Messiah lost
In the ether
Real blood
Bullets flesh
Save for the soul
Soldiering on
Solder back
The halo of you.




Ang ha’s mitabok sa da’an (Snake Crossing)

Ang ha’as mitabok sa da’an
Nakurat ang driver sa habal-habal
Matud pa niya, ”Daku-a oy!”

Nagdahum ko nga sawa
Sama sa akong paa ang gidak-on
Apan pagka-cute man di-ay
Sa babuyon nga bitin
Naninguha pa gyud intawon
Og kamang sa lapukon nga dalan
Aron motabok sa pikas daplin

Maayo gani wala suwayi sa driver og ligis
Nahadlok man sab gud siya nga mopahit kuno
Mayna lang hinan-aw ko og Discovery
ug National Geographic Channel
Ug Animal Planet pa gyud

Sige ta’g kakita sa mga naturalists
Nga yano rang gipunit ang mga bitin
Ug moingon pa gyud, “What a beautiful animal.”
Diri sa amo-a, it’s only beautiful if we can put
An animal in a cooking a pot
Bantug rang hapit na mapu-o ang mga mananap dinhi



Slew (Song for You)

She killed me
I don’t know how many times
She kissed me
I don’t know how many rhymes
She told me
To write in cold climes

I come back for more
Each time she says I hate you
Her wicked smile sweet honey
To a fly caught in a web
Of desire and regret

Nice View Ruined

Her legs are two of the whitest
and smoothest I’ve seen
But she walks like a duck

Wasting the short denim pants
Clinging to her butt
Like a scared child

She can cause accidents
On the street
Or make your day
With her gait

You Are Not The World's Best Dad

(Image from ablemuse.com)

You are not the world’s best dad
There were times I wished you dead
I forget the reason why I felt that way
You were not the world’s best dad

Freud believed that a father is a godlike figure
in everyone’s mind
I don’t know about that,
but you sure did act like your were God at times

No father, no son, no daughter
Where is mother in all of this?
In the kitchen cooking,
In the toilet cleaning

Loving you is not easy
It should be but not
Today is your special day
Mother has hers too

Who wins out in father-mother contest?
Counting the number of mother’s boys
And father’s girls
Mother should win by a landslide

It’s not the easiest thing in the world to say:
I love you, father
You are a creature of darkness and light
Can’t live without one or the other

Congratulations, you have done enough to pass
The paternal test of love and hate
Happy Father’s Day, dad
Someday you will die, but today you live.

Ang Cerveza

Ingon sila ang beer hinimo gikan sa trigo.
Pero nganong humot man nga kamoteng linung-ag
inig agi nako usahay sa highway Seno?

Dili man pod ni gikang humota sa kusina
sa mga balay ilawom sa tulay sa Tipolo.
Basta diha gyud sa tungod planta sa San Miguel.
Kana bang makita gani nimo ang daku kaayo
nga tangke kay bildo man ang bintana,
nga mora'g diha buhaton ang beer.

Dili sab tingali ni dautang hangin
gikan sa ginhawaan sa usa sa mga pasahero
sa jeep nga akong gisakyan:
kamoteng-utot, kay dili man baho,
hinuon humot.

Kaniadtong bata pa ko
cerveza ang tawag nila sa beer.
“’Day, taga-i mi’g tulo ka cerveza, bi!”
Ang mga Katsila man gud
ang nagdala aning cerveza diri.
Apan pag-abot sa mga Amerkano,
sa radyo ug TV gi-advertize ang beer,
beer na lang sab ang naandan nato.

Lami gyud ang beer, labi na kung bugnaw.
Pait apan lami.
Makalipong, makahubog,
makabusog sab kuno
kay "beer is food" kung taga San Mig pasulti-on.
Ayaw na lang og palit og bugas ug sud-an,
i-inom na lang sa eskina
ang imong kwarta, apili’g sumsoman.
Panlingi lang kay apason unya ka
sa imong asawa, makulatahan ka;
outside the kulambo pa gyud ka.

Beer is cold. Very cold outside the moskitero.

Stormy Weather

Image from www.isavo.com

We will make love
for the first time in stormy weather;
water swelling clouds,
darkening your brows.

You will cry in glee
insane for the waiting.
A quarter of a centurion
of wounded animal pride
And lions mad with fear.

You will dig your nails
into my back
which has deflected
bullets of stares and whispers,
sobbing silently into tin ears.

Comings and goings mean nothing
with you here,
your pretty head
on my shoulder,
insisting you are home.

A Storm of Butterflies

Illustration by Wendy Plovmand

Whispered sighs bring about a storm of butterflies
Sweet nothings are nothing
Promises unkept, unbidden, reap a yearning
You tried to lasso a hurricane
With a string of pearls
Breaking it, falling desires turned
into islands floating in the sea
Forests will sprout
on what little soil there is on the rocks
Love and envy will grow
on scorched hearts
A mass of moths will descend
suffocating the sun

Who Needs A Centipede?

Image from the cover of Tony Ross’ book: The Financial Centipede: Waiting for the Next 99 Shoes to Drop

Who needs a centipede?
Who needs 100 legs?
Who needs an arthropod
with high-maintenance shoes?
It scares the heck out of schoolgirls
and gives boys ideas for torture.
One leg off; 99 to go.
Who’s counting and who cares?
The centipede does.
It hates to walk with a limp.

Coke Killed Mary Joy

Painting by Jim Warren

She drank acid to end the pain
that had mother written all over it
in blood and vomit.
The first time it didn’t work.
That suicide wasn’t successful.
Homicidal success easier to achieve
than any other.
She drank Coca-Cola
to finish what she started.

Mary Joy: lovely and smart,
all wasted in a poison womb.
Sixteen summers of malignity,
short periods of happiness pure.

How long before glass breaks
under a hammer’s power?
She broke. She died.
She won’t get up on the third day
intact in pride.
She goes where no mothers
of eternal torment are.
She is joy now.
Sadness was her bliss.

2 Dreams

Illustration by Koldo Barroso

I Dreamed Of You

It’s been a long time
I’ve seen a rainbow,
but last night
I dreamed of you.
In colors of forests,
screaming simians,
mornings and dew.

Mimi of the
hoarse whispers,
lewd curses,
cigarette blues.
You were in a dress
of fields of blooms,
your eyes stabbing spirits,
suggestions profuse.

I followed you into a room
dark and fearful, symmetry askew.
You pushed me away.
I stood my ground.
Couldn’t lose you again
in platonic platitudes.

Lips crushed lips
like meteors
crashing on satellites.
You weakened.
I got stronger.

The lights turned on.
Eyes kept closed,
barenaked, unashamed.


Illustration by Emila Yusof

Haiku kuno

A rainbow I miss.
Painting skies
with colors bliss.
I dreamed of Mimi.