So long ago,
A boy confessed his love.
                                                                ­                                     So long ago,
Yet she still remembered,
          And she was disgusted.

The sound that resonated as she vomited
Lasted
            for
        months,



Though, she has been long gone.

I yearn to forget
these strokes of ancient paintings,
that decorate my soul
with the triumphs of
unidentified feelings.

The carefully carved muse
that once lived in my mind;
now drips in reverie, one by one,
as silence takes over its reign.

I'm retracing the steps you once took,
The remnant of sepia shadows that was once here,
To understand what this art really means to you.

In front of me, a random grass patch where you once lay
Now lies abandoned for puppies to roll and tourists to pose
I am sitting here seven years too late,
Born too late to meet him, who now sleeps in the soil,
But not too late to breathe the same air as you.

So let’s dance and create our own footprints,
I promise I'll immortalize our shadows,
Engrave your words in my heart,
Etch your name like these memorials on the stone.

Now that I'm here, I promise you that
Nothing shall be erased by the wind,
Nobody will say that “it is forgotten”.

There's a sweet melody inside,
telling me to close my eyes and listen,
and my dreams have never been so dark -
you've been telling me to keep a distance.

There's a shadow where I walk,
moving close and telling me to listen,
but my mind is keeping me awake -
you've been telling me to keep a distance.

There's a new person in my life,
all the people tell me to forget you,
and I know I kept coming back,
but I think it's time to listen.

There's a sweet melody inside
and my love for you is growing weaker
and I know that I should listen -
you've been telling me to keep a distance.

Yesterday hid behind the dense
switchgrass
on the look out for us
to light candles of thought,
so it may remind us

of scent, quiet but lingering,
of a fragrance, infused beneath memories’ skin
and ferry us back in time.
seeking forgiveness,
seeking that we might forget,
on the eyes of restlessness an obol shall rest
and leave what was as dead,
as if a rash, cooled to no longer rage,
to no longer itch.

Yet, we can’t forget.
Unbidden, yesterday returns as spring
but with a hint of winter
and the frailty of things.

Do must we,
But break clocks
And wish gears lost,
In the end we are found
On the road where we
left our ghosts.

this,  their-poem, emitting their call-sign,
those who once checked the box
of in love..a status of joyful revelation,
for all to see, all passerby’s, all witnesses
to the outstanding glowing skin,
the perms-frozen half smiles that
never are erased, you secret it not
so much,
for your body entire expels
the scent secreted of a world
in orbit
around
each other

then the unexplainable, threads go worn,
a slower tearing, one by one, till there
is not one, nary more any, you then
check the invisible box,
“not in a relationship”
and it feels like
a load has
been dropped onto you
from on high, flattened,

now cloaked in a demeanor
that cries out
they
put a load
right on me,
and you seek
excuses to recall ecstasy and

you start dancing to forget,
like a centrifugal whirlpool’s vortex,
whipping up the air surrounding

to heat a forgetting, till the until,
of collapsing shame offers up
arms to drown you, a relief offering,
and the words to “Yesterday”
are everywhere
reverberating


walking down the street
a somebody smiles to at, just,
for you,
without cause,
but a causal triggering
a singular event,

just a smile with edged up corners,
and suddenly you feet golightly,
and inexplicably inextricably
in the moment it is
all you can see,
and one starts to dance
to well
remember

and a poem
forms upon your silently moving
lips,
and a dance to remember
is finished,
starts up
a new one,
with similar familiar steps
a dance to believe  in~

and laugh when
you say your name

out loud

you!

are the poet of the way,
a new word choreographer

and there will be a way,
always another way…

May pangalan sa hangin na tila humahaplos,
Pangalan na gusto kong limutin tuwing sasapit ang hapon.
Sa bawat patak ng ulan,
Isang alaala ang siyang unti-unting nalilimutan.

Limot, sa mga sandaling ika'y nakasama,
Ay siyang unti-unting nalulumot.
Pero ang mga nalulumot na ito ay ayokong pakawalan,
Kaso nasasaktan ako, dahil ikaw mismo ang lumilisan.

Napakahirap na limutin ka,
Maalala ka lang, mata ko ay nagluluha.
Ako'y hinihila ng sakit,
Dahil bakit parang napakadali sa'yo na ito'y lagpasin?

Bakit hanggang ngayon nakabaon pa rin ang iyong magandang mukha?
Sa tuwing sisikat ang araw,
Ito'y nakapagpapakumbaba.

Kahit man ang oras ay magbago,
Ang pagmamahal ko sayo'y hindi maglalaho.
Na kahit man ika'y lumimot
Ang puso ko ay sayo lang titibok.

I throw my memories into the fireplace
Like crumpled pieces of paper
I watch as they start to burn
As I start to forget the past
But suddenly
The fire is out
The flames burn no longer
And the pieces of paper
Are left untouched

Sometimes I think about you
And my hand feels empty
Cause it’s not holding yours
And my head feels unstable
Cause it’s not resting on your shoulder
And my lips feel dry
Cause they’re not kissing you
And I miss you but I know you don’t feel the same way so I try to forget