i should have known
that the tides were meant
for me to play along
and not for me to fight with

i’ll float in the sea
before i sink into submission
until i end up in the hands
of someone looking
for a washed up pearl
in ravaging waters.

I stack my pillows up high
before I sleep at night
so my dreams have a fortress
where only a lone knight
can conquer, to rid my dreams
their unfortunate plight
before I wake up in tears
in the break of a sunrise.

you, saying my name
is one of the reasons
i get up in the morning
and the only reason
i have to sleep at night.

they say a picture
tells a thousand words…

if you see my smile
captured in a candid moment
with eyelashes batted
in a second
would you see the sadness
behind the smile?
how my lips are pursed
after the click?
how in my mind,
i have to keep smiling
so you’d think i’m happy?

you’ll never see
everything with just a picture
but you can write everything
behind a smile.

before I sleep, i fix my sheets
and stack my pillows as if
a lover sleeps on my bed

i sleep and wake up alone, but
i wouldn’t mind waking up
to morning hair, sleepy eyes,
tired smiles and a long yawn
i wouldn’t mind waking up
before dawn, after dusk,
during the sunset or while
we’re under the stars

i wonder how lovers like these
are hard to find, because i bask
in the simplicity of mornings
for only in these early hours do i
truly know someone

maybe i have puzzles and traps
stuck on my hallway, or a
warning sign taped on my door
for none even bothered to knock
or maybe it is my refusal
to find any other

no one else sleeps on my bed,
because i’ve pressed all my sheets,
perfumed all my pillows, marked
my calendar and saved the dates
for nights and days with you.

we entrust our hearts
to someone who we think
could keep it

but instead they leave fingerprints
and even I don’t know
who owns this mound of flesh
they call a heart—

it has lost its identity.

you wrote me letters on leaves,
i wrote mine on paper
both of the same origins,
of the same tree

as you wrote,
the leaves fell slowly
and wilted
while i kept mine
hidden between books

i’ve kept your love
from the start,
while yours decayed
and left to rot.

I’m still as broken as I used to be
trusting in promises that meant so much
to my ears your lies were poetry
for I believed that a heart
can love only once

I thought that I was enough
I thought that I’d forget you in time—

even if love blooms from wilted flowers
I still see no promise in spring.

your eyes were blue
and i drowned deep

it started as a drizzle
then became a puddle
until it was big enough
to form a whirlpool
taking in all of me
i sank in a tidal wave
of who i was before you--

and i didn't die
i was reincarnated
after your tears
brought me back to life.

i am a ghost of
who i was yesterday

an illusion of who
i'll be the next day

a soul living in
a distant utopia of my own

a fleeting vision of
a person--

because change
is a path that
leads nowhere.

thunderstorms
and lightnings
remind me of you--

because you struck me
when I least expected it.

I went to the beach
with our memories
in mind

I took a dip
so its ashes
may sink in
sea water

and the fishes
would eat the
bitter ends left of
our love

but our memories
bathed me wholly--

and I went home
soaked in tears.

our song plays
in an infinite loop
poetry fixed with melody
set in orchestration
with our emotions

but no—
our song plays endlessly
but it stops and pauses
with breaks for breaths
and i may not have
counted the times
it played over
in my head

but i do know
that nothing is infinite.

if you never talk to strangers
how else would you know anyone?

does a baby know his mother
without seeing her
when he goes out of the womb?

does a toddler go by himself
in a playground, not sharing
his toys to the other kids?

does a child go in school
for the very first time
and not make any friends?

does a person not smile
to the person behind the bar
in a coffee shop?

i say lovers were
strangers to one another
at some point in time--

and if you've never talked to strangers
you've never loved at all.

what do the stars
have to do with our love?

do the stars know
how our hearts beat?
do the stars
lose their senses
in a simple touch?
a stolen glance?
a faint whisper?

when they align
they will never be
as beautiful as the
invisible outlines
i’ve made on your skin

i love you
and an infinite number
of celestial bodies
can never compare.

we are waves crashing
we are strength and beauty combined
for every time that we chance
upon the shore,
we end up going a few steps back
falling farther away from land
taking us deeper into unseen depths
where what lies beyond is uncertainty

you should be the sand
while i should be the water
that imprints patterns
along your body

or i should be the air
taking you to endless streams
where we could be whirlwinds
gathering up bounties
for our flawed existence

but we are waves crashing
and even if the sun
becomes too extreme
or the shore is too far from reach
i won’t get tired
of falling in and out with you
even in midnight summer dreams.

i flip our book
over and over
looking for answers
and for lines i may have missed

some words i've highlighted
some i read in smaller font
some italicized, a ring of importance
in an otherwise simple word

faster and faster
i flip the pages
no answer
nothing

no plot
just words
incoherent, meant
for our minds to bend
we have to start writing.

we wrote our names on the sand
filled it with hearts
and shells for embellishment
you wrote with the thicker end
of the stick, made deep marks
on the white sand
but you wrote it near the edge
and it was washed away

as water filled up
the spaces we made
we had no choice but to look on
and when it was over
you sighed,
i cried

our love was swallowed
by a whirlpool.

ten months ago,
I went to a temple
and made a wish
on kidney-shaped stones

it wasn’t a serious wish
but it wasn’t silly either
i might as well say it
since it came true

i wished for you.

through failed speech,
i’ve made words bloom
from seeds to leaves

as they wilt slowly,
i realized that i haven’t
sowed what i planted,
and i haven’t stopped
to smell the flowers—

if i fail to decipher
what is hidden within the veins
of each petal, what would happen
if it wilts?

would life end
with me not knowing
the reason behind morning dew?

--too blunt
to hurt like bullets
but when fired
in all directions
I’m the only one
who gets hit
and it hurts.

I see shiny coins,
flawless paper,
I buy things
with crumpled currency
first

I see pictures
women with curves
men with abs
no one without

I see roses
in full bloom,
crimson,
long-stemmed
and perfect

Everything I see
will always
be better than me
but then,
I can never be
just a thing

I ask myself everyday
am I worth it?

in a way
two writers
who fall in love
plagiarize
each other—

because they see love
with the same eyes
that made them see
each other, then
they write about it.