the last anyone saw her, she was laying
flat on her plastic back upright [head staring ahead;
against the wall;
still, blonde & blue; still smiling;
bathing suit gone to puffs of soapy silk
bubble pop; her eyes are communicative;
her hippy daughter put in the bathwater;
| [evoking the sea] nymphs & mermaids:
mother leaning over
the balcony smoking
a cigarette Calling Di Di:
on the balcony below; Di Di's cocktail is a man - -
teenage Joe,
Satan's child by the moon;
he only ever loved
one woman in his life;
Suzy, drowned in the tidal wave of 1997
that hit Manila:
his poetry about her
several half-sisters
& the zombies he sees in -
his prophetic sleep
get him jumped;
jailed & deported from
Duterte's Philippines;
although famous among the diaspora - -
legendary prostitutes & drug-dealers
found dead in the street &
brought back to sordid life [like] |
Suzy & teenage Joe: |
thrown out w/ | the garbage
like pulp magazines: |
& hunted like |
African Abinoes