Nightfall


Amber colored clouds cling close to the cliffs,
waters wash ashore ushering the rushing tides,
and the sun slowly slips silently to the sea
Soon the day slumbers, soon it will be nightfall.

You took me my love on a bright brilliant day,
you caught my eye with your sparkling eyes.
My chest heaved with life again and my head
began to float hovering and hanging in space

I followed you with my thoughts and feared
the day I would say goodbye and thank you.
Hoping that somehow after all we will remain
friends, not more, just see you, hear your voice.

Somehow I prayed I won’t slip and lose you
in one of these long conversations at nightfall.
When the darkness veils this dazed passion
and calms this heaving heart eager for you.

Stillness, silence, sleep soothe this silly soul,
keep my love calm and eager still waiting for me.
It is the new moon and window sills begin to glow,
she awaits, I hope it will be dark soon at nightfall.

Cut Myself Shaving


Cut myself shaving one day
with an old razor and saw myself
on the mirror with blood
on my fingers.
I did it once, when I was younger
and my features were clear
but now the scar’s
nowhere in my face.
I’ve stopped to be disturbed about
what I feel and others say
when I have none to blame
but myself.
Better I suppose to be unconcerned
with what happens today
because who cares
it will happen anyway.
I’ve lost my steady hand and
my skin starts to wrinkle
and sooner or later
I’ll cut myself again.

Shadows

Shadows dance on the flat floor
of my house
and memories return of a house
Long gone
blown down by a storm.

Those years were dark and poor
yet happy ones
with everybody in the house
even the stray boy
and the cats.

I learned to love in that house.
to laugh at troubles
and to await later triumphs
Just as sure as the sun
finally comes out

and light washes away
the shadows after
a storm.

Around My House


To the east sits steady
Ki Agang’s throne
A splendid blue volcano
where the sun slips in at dawn

The south sprawls a cacophony
of people, friends and kin
clump of trees and concrete
to lose cares in the busy din.

The vast north open boundless
where soothing breeze begin
and Simurai skims the clouds
and the road to dreams open

Sunsets to the west bodes peace
and balmy tranquility sleeps
at Baao lake where my people began
with God’s glory, grandeur, and gifts.

At Barlin Park

Summers end at Barlin park
beneath St. Bartholomew’s
I’d climb the stone bulwark
slippery and wet with dew
and see the town anew

then I would jump free
to the soft grass below
on scraped hands and knee
as others would follow
and roll away triumphantly

and the monkey bars will call
and we clamber up the device
arm over arm we’d crawl
through a gauntlet of pipes
till at last our breath sufficed

no one remembered home
and we wished for the rain
scanning the clouds that roam
as we cleared the grass of grain
where last summer we had lain

come at last the first raindrops
from skies turning grey and dim
I’d close my eyes to the drops
till water reach grass tips rim
and lift me off a carpet of green