At dawn, they’re within earshot. They furl and unfurl. They glisten and shimmer, radiantly tethered to the air. They are out of reach. They are measured bursts, feather and lurch. Then it’s to tree stem, to stump. Then it’s leaf to leaf and mouth to song. They are song to sun and sun to dawn. […]
Initially, we held ourselves in contempt because the light covered us with little tongues, made us conscious of the miniscule. We wore the evening¹s chime around our waists so when we turned, we were aware of ourselves and the music the day struck in time from our bodies. From our bodies we urged a story, […]
A blur of upwardness that is climbing. The flat board pressed to palm, pressed to foot sole. It becomes motion-slurred arrival, which Fidelito makes: first step, second step. The ladder stretches like an awkward smile of hello, of departure. The boy, trusting only what he feels by hand, begins to forget the ground. With his […]
Let us sing of what can be carried. Let our songs be of hand-carry and Balikbayan boxes. Let us praise stamps and tickets for passage. Let us sing The song of duct tape and markers, the song of twine and cardboard. Let our songs be of shelter for family and pictures. Let us praise pictures […]
A man told me that he had wasted his life. I did not know him. We were on a train moving from one trespass to the next, the fields in the windows shifting utterly into daybreak. He told me about the guitar he bought with a little cash saved at odd jobs, how he could […]
Half asleep you said in your dream you were a tree and I disbelieved. I cannot forgive myself for this. Though I can forgive the moon and the fish that tumble forth in their dreams of the moon. There were light blue eggs in your branches that glinted with specks of glass and no birds […]