Inside the cafe
All the waitresses are gone
One day I'll eat right

I am visited every Wednesday night by the destroyer, Felix, who asks to borrow my carpet. I agree, always keen for a dance, and he thrashes around for an hour or two on the floor before thanking me and leaving.

When the monks came to town my fingers were too loose.
I let them bless that which others had given me
And so I am without a single holy thing.
Now, I treat everything like a deity
Until the monks return.
As I wait:
I sit still in the wet grass, sun-burned and ******
With my paperback lying on the ground.
(a god, forgotten temporarily, soaking in the dew)
It spins me a curse.
I am oblivious to this as
I wish
To be a spirit
Flowing from body to body
Knowing nothing but your face.

I want you to build a swimming pool
in my bedroom before you leave
and I want you to fill it with my guts.
I want you to put my fingers one bye one
in your teeth and snap them off and
tack them to your arms like fleshy feathers.

I want you to pop out my eyes before you go
and mount them glimmering on your forehead.
I want you to crawl into bed with me and
slip off my shoes and my shirt and
sing me whisper sounds that flitter
under the covers and while you sing nail

what’s left of me to the mattress and
kiss me and put the mattress on the porch
and splash the porch with my blood
so the neighbor’s know I’m made of
the real stuff
and leave me there dripping off
the ground with your love.

All I want is to steal
    2. The car and drive away and
        3. To have you
            4. There seating at the passenger seat
                 5. So that I may escape
                     6. From the poison that is
                          7. *Myself

isang musmos na lahi
isang munting nasyon
parang itinanim na buto
itinakdang
sumibol at lumago
sa paglaon ng panahon

nag-aabang, naghihintay
puno nang sabik
pero kay tagal dumating
tayo ay nainip
tadhana nating tagumpay
kailan kaya makakamit
kasi

apat na raang taon
hanggang ngayon
lulong pa rin sa putik
nangangapa, nadadapa sa dilim
mga butong nanginginig sa lamig

mga isla
pitong libong isang daan at pito
ito
ang ating lupang sinilagan,
tahanan ng ating lahi
pero nga bahay ba ito o burol?

mga pangarap na
masilayan ang mga sinag ng araw at
mahagkan ang malayang langit
mananatili lang bang panaginip dito
sa bayang natutulog
o kaya namang natutulog lang kunwari

tanggapin mo na lang na
humikbi, humagulgol,
ibuhos mo man ang iyong luha
walang darating
kumayod ka man at magdamag magsikap
diligan mo man ang lupa ng pawis
wala
pa ring mangyayari

kasi
dugo
dugo lamang na dumaloy
mula sa mga palad ni Hesukristo
kung ang Kanyang pag-ibig ay
babaha sa lupa
ng parang delubyo
ito ang nag-iisang paraan
ang nag-iisang sagot:

dugo
dugo lamang na ibinuhos
ang tanging
makakatubos
makakaahon
makakaligtas
sa atin