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 Nov 2016 Joseph Floreta
athena
it was almost two decades ago
when you looked down
at me from the glass window
i was hours old

yesterday i looked down at you
and read your head stone
i am nineteen years old
-i left you with beautiful flowers
 Nov 2016 Joseph Floreta
athena
you were there on his last night
and was there on the night
we stumbled upon
an unfamiliar house
the creatures were making
a peculiar sound
it was the strange place we inhabited
for as long as we could be brave

you were with me when i lost a limb
you saw grief and tropical storms
right through my eyes
you heard words come out
of my mouth, they were all
in past tense and shaky

the best four years a teenager could have
i have spent them with you
i gave you my trust, my blood
and our promises
you met the 3am version of myself
which i believed that is ours
only to keep

i could not fathom the grief
of losing a limb
nor the grief
of seeing our strange house
collapse right in front of me
but the concrete was made of trust

you contended that you were here
to extend succor, immediate aid
to a grieving soul, to your friend
you came in crowds extending
sympathy as how i've seen it
little did i know that succor
meant pulling the trigger

when the tectonic plates
and the seismic waves
bends the buildings
and crumbles to the ground

when the tropical storm
named after me
pull the tress from its roots
floods the households
and all the different routes

or when your 3am uncertainties
scare you, and you would howl
and howl and howl
but who will you run to?
 Nov 2016 Joseph Floreta
Li
there must be a place
where sinners go

i take my sins
to her
instead of
the church
what use is
a priest
if she's the one
i worship

after every prayer
i shall go
unpunished
after this amen
i shall be
forgiven

this is the place
where a sinner like me
bends the knees.
 Nov 2016 Joseph Floreta
Li
Diba nandoon ka
noong sila'y humingi ng tulong
noong sila'y hinuli at sinaktan
ng walang kalaban-laban
noon sila'y tinrato na hayop
ng sarili nilang kababayan.

Diba narinig mo
ang iyak ng mga batang
dinuyan sa tunog ng bala
noong ang mga nanay nila
na dapat kakanta
ay hindi na makita.

Diba nakita ****
nanaig ang kapangyarihan
kaysa sa kanilang karapatan?

Nandoon ka
sa bawat iyak
sa bawat sigaw
pero hindi mo sila sinagip
mula sa kapangyarihang
puno ng galit.

Ngayon nama'y
kami ang naririto
mga bagong saksi
ng pagkatalo
mga sundalong
walang armas pero
pilit ipinaglalaban
ang katotohanan.

Kailanma'y hindi
magiging sapat
ang mga libro
para ikwento ang pait
para aming maramdaman
ang sakit.

Pero ngayong araw
mga mata'y luluha muli
ang mga sugat ay muling hahapdi.

Ngayong araw
kinalimutan ang kasaysayan
kaya't pasensya na mga anak
kung aming napabayaan
kung ibang pananaw na
ang inyong daratnan

O Pilipinas,
ikaw pa ba ang Perlas ng Silangan?
November 8, 2026.
To all victims of Martial Law, I am eternally sorry.
 Nov 2016 Joseph Floreta
Josy
I'm the type of person that gets easily hurt.
Because I trust everyone.
It does not make me sad that you have moved on, that her face is next to yours in pictures now.
Sometimes it surprises me; I remember the four years that she was me. It's almost a shockwave to see her where I used to be...
a little moment of confusion when I forget that that narrow joint under your shoulder is no longer my home
But I see your smile and it makes me smile still. There is no falling out of love, only changing the way you love. I have every amount of love for you, just hidden in different cavities, pushed back in memories, reserved for who I was then and not who I am now.
She is so beautiful, so alive, so in the moment with you that I am so thrilled that she has become me, that what was once a face I had memorized is hers to kiss now, that you have someone that cares so very much about you.
Isn't it nice to know that all of that practice we did together paid off? That us loving each other then taught us to love others so much better? That the holes that we once filled in each other's lives, triangles that should have been square, are now boxed in corner to corner with people who fit wrapped into us so much better.
It makes my heart full to know that you've found that happiness.
What a blessing that I can say that we are both finally happy apart.
After him, I swore I'd never fall in love again. Swore it in contract and oath to God and in the eyes of the state of Ohio. After him, I promised I'd never love another boy.
I never meant to lie, to be so madly in love with someone else that it consumes my entire day. To be needed so much that my marriage might be shoved to the back burner. I never meant to be so deeply mad about someone else, to put their needs before my own; to care more about them then I care about my own life.
I never meant to love so deeply this brown eyed boy, this young soul, newly loveable. This boy with the same eyes as his father, as my husband. This boy that will someday call me mom.
There are words I want to use
I listed them down
So I may remember.

Your name was a word
I did not list
For it's impossible to forget.
Our list of words. Game starts tomorrow.
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