Nah day mura baya gyud ko og iro nga way tag.iya
Maghal-hal ra ko sa imong atubangan hangtod imo
Kung tagdon ug gitik-gitikon gamay akong tiyan.
Magtulo pa gani ang laway kung init kaayo
Pero ayaw lang gyud ug kabalaka day
Wala bitaw koy kuto.

But it is yours.
Red rose petals
Like drops of blood
It's always the blood
That makes me cringe
Like the thread on our fingers
Tangled and useless
I see there's a connection
But I see blood in your fingernails
I wonder where you got that?
Ahhh. I remember, we held hands last night.

"Attacks me and hugs me
And forces the breathe out of me
Almost kills me
But kinda also loves me."

Isn't that the sweetest?

Today I'm gonna tell you
How to be a good girl that Ma loves
First, remove all your piercings
But don't shove them down the drain
You'll need them later.

Second, have a straight hair that Ma likes
No buts and no ifs
Only yes and yes
But keep all your curler and ribbons
You'll need them to straighten your soul.

Nobody tells you this
In the street or in the market
Nobody texts you how it's done
But now that I've done it and I know why
Because it takes stamina to be a good girl.

'Wag muna nating tuldukan
Ang paglalakbay sa dilim
Kung saan ito patungo
Alamin muna natin bago gumabi

Malay mo sulit pala ang lahat ng luha at tula
Ang mga pakikinig sa ulan
Ang mga bakanteng titig sa kawalan
Ang madalas na pagpigil sa sariling tumakbo palayo

Palayo sa hapo
Sa sakit na medyo sobra na
Sa pilit na bulong na 'kaya pa'
Siguro, siguro...

Palapit na ang bituin at buwan
Magsisimula na ang sayaw ng mga alitaptap
Kaya dito muna tayo
Wag muna nating tuldukan.

Sweats rolling down my thighs
Eyes closing like the end of a play
"To be or not to be"
But here I am in between the clench and a hiss.

Like a song
Slowly, slowly humming and building
The chorus trembles the harmony
Big Bang can't compare to this.

I still wish for you.
My heart don't exactly leap
When I see you
But other times
I drown
With necessity and hesitation
I unbuckle my heart
And steady my knees
This life indeed is a waning moon.

I'm dying to know if this love is a fraternity
A lobby to the endangered discipline and fault
When the so called collective wisdom orders 'NO'
What are you gonna do?

Mountains are not our thing
For beings so small as we are.
But a handful of earth
Really, a pinch of it, our hands can handle.

If cherishing the fading photograph
Of your face and and it's frown
Be the last thing I do
Then I'd do it gladly and with all my might.

I don't know how long these feelings will last.
But for some reason I seem to treasure it.
So so much.
I write for it and about it.


Hoping that when the time comes
I'll remember you as a person
Who made me feel storms
While my shirt is dripping with sweat.


I don't want to just forget you.
Make me scarred and shaking and vulnerable
From grief or love or whatever it is you can give
But, please, make me remember.

My eyes wander to the white wall
To the uneven ceiling
To the piled books and ***** laundry
Untouched like the tangled wires
Like a necklace under my chin.

And finally I'm flying
Away from this world
Of indifference and guilt
Yes, everything looks so mundane up here.

Where can I find a heart
That doesn't shy away from grief?
Or a heart that yearns for something
Purer than a unicorn.

I'd like to meet that heart
And if possible, make it mine.

I guess the heart is made that way
Wanting what's forbidden
And sin tastes like cherry with wine
With an appetite that can drown the town.

And weeping won't cure you.
God doesn't care.
And Eden is closed to those who are drunk
But darling, we have heaven here.

I see sun flares when you smile
Filling me with warmth and an odd
Feeling of desperation and exhaustion
That shames my stuttering words.

Why do you have to be so pretty and captivating?
When all I can do is turn a blind eye?
Why do you have to be so full of life
When I'm burning inside?

My paint is peeling
Soon, very soon, people will see
And judge that I love you
For what I am and for what you are.

Why do you have to be my everything?

After the Tohoku earthquake
Silence shadowed the ones left to weep
But it's not for long
Because the numbing faded away
And the storm signaled the remains of the lost love.

When it falls
When it falls
When it falls
It just falls

Just like me
Just like me
Just like me
Falling, just me.

For this boy, a trip down memory lane
Is only a knock away.
But his hands are heavy
And only his tears are brave
Enough to fall and roll
The only feeling of cold
That his nerves can serve.

All of him is heavy
His spirit, breath and heart.
But it seems like everything
Is light enough to go with the wind.
Leaving him in poverty and dullness
And a trip down memory lane.

A call to arms.
Really.
Just a call to your arms.
Dear, I'm borrowing Darcy's words
I love you ardently.
So please. Embrace me.
I don't care if I'm ****** afterwards.

I hope I can compose
A melody out of this screeching pain
So I can play it to you even while you sleep
So you can feel your ears bleed like how my heart did.

I hope you'll dream of me
Thrusting notes down your throat
And I won't stop even after the curtain closes
Until you get it right. Until we get it right.

Because this love is obsessive
It's destructive than nuclear weapons
Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined
Can't compare to our aftermath.

You can see a physical manifestation
Of my momentary affection for your soul
Pale skin and bags under the eyes
Chapped soles and long nails

Dry lips
Hollow cheeks
Broken heart
And of course, raspy lungs

How can you kiss me
With steady fingers?

I don't know
But these times
It seem colder than before
More lonely. More sad.

Since summer is long gone
I don't know
What to cover first
My heart or my skin?

This one is tested and proven
Though there's no published journal
Or any sort of paper, peer reviewed and rated
This one is a science of its own.

When you're feeling under the weather
Or just feeling down and sad
Try gratitude for there's a whole village
To be thankful about.

I can live with pain if it's distributed equally.
So suffer my love. I don't care if it's from grief
Or from a broken toe.
My love has been corrupted
And I know it's evil and unbecoming
But I am vexed and hopeless
And I need you to come back. Please.

No and my love is never tender
For it's written on rocks
And something written on rocks is never tender
If anything, it is with force and brutality.

And I hope you are okay with that.

It's the division
That causes diversion
From the real reason
Why there's a nation.

From the classic white and black
To the queer and straight
Take it a step further
And we'll reach heaven and hell.

Ever wonder why there's a lease
Beyond the acts and protocols
That only binds and blinds
Slowly dimming our wits and our eyes.

Blunt barricade, sharpened doors
Batons as heavy as our souls
Houdini cannot unloose
Seamed and woven by our ironic prose.

Some nights I shake inside
Uncontrollably.

You left my lips
Swollen and uneven
With your lies and empty
Moans that keeps me awake at night

As though all I need
Is a sheet of blinds
That can keep me
On my cigarette diet

It's either love or vengeance
No healing in between
Because love
is not a sickness and vengeance
My friend cannot be healed.

Go implies leaving.
The separation of ways.
And of course the unsaid 'whys'.

Snow can't hide your tears, you know?
It's an unwilling home to the sick at heart.
But rain cries with you.
It pats your head when you need a friend.

It carries your tears down to your body
Making your pores know
That this my friend
is how subtle grief tastes like.

And let's not talk about
The real solid grief because that again my friend
Defies the gravity of tears
You can stand in the snow and not melt it.

I guess it's better for us to be under the rain
When we're served an extra dish
Blood through our veins and a twitch to the heart
And whether you like it or not
Force your tears. Let it dry under the rain. Cure your heart.

So you can stand back in the snow
And plot your vengeance
Because a dry and snowy place
Is a beautiful crime scene, you know.

Do not rock the boat
Nor destroy the harmony
Of the community and society
Of honorable people
Who abhors abortion
But shames teenage parents.
Who points fingers
and throws stones
Knowing they deserve as much.

It's part of their daily rosary
To beg for forgiveness
Kneel for a hour and a half
Just so they can vindicate
Their ugly hearts.
It's part of their holy routine
To have a dry and rocky stares
And ****** ignore the helpless ***.

Oh smog! Such ugly snots!
Breathe your first
And condemn your last
Salvation is not for us.

A day will come
That I will be more than my feelings.
More than my heartbreak
Yes, more than my heartbreak.

It's funny how you can elevate
My heartbeat and anxiety
And you, oblivious to my suffering
Can breath without a pause and hesitation.

A day will come
That I will no longer care if we shared
That same laughter or that glance
Or even care to check if your presence is close to mine.

But for now, I'll breathe
Though lumpy and not without a sigh
Though unsteady and thin
This uncertain breath can still sustain me.

When we get too tired, we falter
Like the static and bump
In your humming and pulsating silence
Tell me, are you tired hanging from the tree?

My poetry teacher said
A poem is a mystery
But I find it superficial
Because it is no mystery why I'm writing this.

We are cold.
Whether measured by the sun's standard
Or by the sound made by the clouds.
But right now an unrecognized feeling
Is creating a filter through my eyes.

This feeling is so strong and irrevocably true
That I'm left wishing that it's pure.

I never asked for the spring
Nor the summer
But the cherry blossomed
And the sea charmed the travelers

So why am I still stuck
With the four hiragana characters
That patterns my bug bites
And damp pillows

Afraid to realize that I can't do it after all
And this time, failing is not an option
But my knees are shaking
I'm collapsing.

But I'm holding on
Step by step I lift my soul
My spirit and my eye
And there, done!

It's just that I never tried
Filling water to a barrel
With a *******.
Futility, I should say.
That is quite true, expectedly true
Before I met you.

For the crown is heavy
The bearer's neck should not be infested
By malicious bite marks.
The head should not be empty

In the worst case scenario
It should be filled with poetry.

When you're gone
Take everything you can
Anything that can fit
Into the holes of your heart

But leave one thing
One drop, two drops; no a barrel of it
A barrel of your tears and kindly make it two
Cause I'll be cleaning my windows and all the footprints of you.

You have this grave ability
Of understanding what is not
And feeling the roughness
Of everything brilliant.

You're a silhouette
Outside my window
Only formed when the lights are out
But you know, darling
If you're not willing to
Use the front door
Then take all your handprints
On the window and on my face.

I am yet to find
A way to settle
With the disappointment
That after giving my all
Everyday and work hard
And still fail by this world's standard.

Then maybe I should change my
Own definition of success
And failure
To suit my goal
To keep me within the guardrails.

When I am grasping for you
It's like chasing summer all around the continents
The heat that serenades your heart
Shining upon those caverns of iced droplets
Which heavens forbids
To be walked upon
or be gazed on.

This month I'll remember you
Like any other month.
And like any other month
I can't forget you just yet.

I don't need a monologue about freeing love
I want to talk about the binding ones
The ones that leaves no bruises
But broken bones and torn muscles
Hidden
and the love limps
aches, shakes and longs to quit
To crawl away from this madness of heaven
But as I've said, binding.

No. I don't think that my Japanese exam tomorrow
Is more important than my soul mending poetry writing night
I can feel the star dust flowing through my eyes
And right now I can feel I need some patching up
Or else I'll dry up.

Something does this to you.
Like the world is some sort of a very strong electric fan
Or a broken air conditioner that causes you cold and flu
And all sorts of energy ******* monster.

But all you need is a poetry night
Just to shine on your thoughts and dance
And remember honeybunch that you
You are a magical flying butterfly that needs it's honey.

With God's presumably infinite memory
Will He remember me?
Or if He does
How will he?
Will he remember how I spat at His commandments?
Or will he remember the crying girl
Who cried and promised anything
For Him to save her mother?

And tonight I am not sleeping alone
Tonight I will be sleepless but not without dreams
Two burning things will make love to me
One is you and the other is the ache from imagining us.

My body longs to lick your soul
To see beneath your eyelashes
And to feel your heartbeat drowning mine
But no. Not tonight.

And when it's daybreak
And the sheets are without a single crease
Then I will let my happiness go
And fully admit that I can only burn with you.