summer is the call
cicadas hum and chirp to —
I answer, find me

when you are driving
don't slow down when the light's green
do so when it's orange

tell me where, tell me
when I can find happiness —
so I can go there

infinitely slow
yet certainly numbered — this
makes summer sweeter

what if the only
thing I can give you are the
things I leave behind

dip your long fingers
in me     — I'm a lake,
                                       deep,
                                                 dark
veiled,
            calm with desire

lying beside me
you're the sound of heavy snow—
storm in December
just the reason to stay put
curled up by a fire — your fire

can you trust me like
you trust gravity to pull
you back to the ground

boy ran to the fields
and saw how big the sky is
brother didn't see

boy ran to the fields
and fell towards the big sky
brother longs for him

boy ran to the fields
his brother chased after him
they ran forever

enter through the same
door he walked out of — that is
how
          you find
                           my heart

joy would always leave
me like a bird that flew out
of its cage and — when
it came back knocking on the
glass — I wouldn't let it in

the alarm goes off
I'm fighting a war in bed
it's against myself

high noon, I waited
for you at the torii
night came, you did not ⛩

we were fortunate
to share each millisecond
in each other's lives

head on my chest, I
trace his curves with my fingers
like a book in ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑‎

there are nights when my
knees write treaties on the floor —
of my surrender

ghosts do not forget
— they haunt where it seems quite
just like past lovers

hey kid, listen — don't
leave the womb, don't open your
eyes — they'll make you cry

I was a dreamer
you, a wanderer — you left
                 while I was asleep

restless, these long nights
looking for you in the stars
found you — I found rest

you're the summer months
I spent in Grandma's house — flowed
infinitely slow

ᴵ you feel the water
rising inches at a time
until you're neck-deep

ᴵᴵ you're underwater
telling yourself that you can
always hold your breath

ᴵᴵᴵ you've been under for
so long, you forgot what air
feels like in your lungs

ᴵⱽ but as the sea claims
the land every high tide — you
claimed the sea as yours

ⱽ you wake up in an
underwater castle that
you built with your hands

a raging river
of thoughts,  a stream of words — the
rest flows out as tears

searching for something
or someone, through train windows
that's when I was found

when I say don't stop
I'm pleading more to myself
than I am to you

    don't stop giving in
   'til the shape of your back is
    the shape of his palms

   don't stop yielding up
    'til your secrets liquefy
   into his whiskey

   don't stop submitting
   'til you see the skin under
   his chin sleek and flushed

I can't tell him
he's beautiful
— because then
       he'll know
         why
           he's beautiful
             to me

it started raining
so I put on my raincoat
and the sun said, SIKED!

the night — swift and loud
crying of the long day's sun
about the full moon

the real sin is not
in two men in love but in
choosing to hate love

someone's calling me
I look around thinking — did
I forgot to pay?

don't give me the faint
glow of a distant star — bring
out your raging sun

bridges look best when
you're in the water — best crossed
                             when with a lover

remember, he who
turned the light on had to look
for it in the dark

don't ask me to stop
we've been loving, and hurting
so long, it's the same

if you don't believe
in love at first sight then how
about now, baby

from that moment on
I was no longer just mine —
I knew I was yours

of GRAVITATION —
I want you near just as much
as you want me close

I don't understand
how you can be more tempting
draped, than naked — you

you — standing still, strong
like David and Venus — un-
drape me already

kung pagod ka na
'di kailangang umalis
— magpahinga ka

quickly does the road
get stained by the rain that fell
fast from somewhere else

sarcasm demands
shared intimate history
for it to make sense

endless summer day
hoping by the end of it
you'll come home to me

boy ran to the fields
his brother rose to meet him
finally, they're home

what does it mean when
the time they used to give free—
ly, we beg for now?

the cold wind whispers
there's nothing left for you here
so I struck a match

they say it's all in
my head — why do I feel it
in my LIMBS and CHEST

stop me — stop what we're
doing just so I can get
on my knees to plead
                                      (don't)