I wake up
with you on my lips,
but it's only your name
and not your kiss.

I dreamt of you,
and I can’t get back
to our unconscious innocence.
I wish we had not woken.

The crack lets the light in.
Pitiless beams expose my lies,
and reveal your absence.
Regret is making coffee in the kitchen.

the sunlight
finds my
face

and I no
longer
can sleep

how rude
is the
sun

to force
me
to wake

a rowdy
child
tugging at me

so I can
come and play
with them

The salted whispers
Run through me,
As I dream of the
Inevitable gore,
Of my fears.
That flood
My mind.

brief echoes of the past
arrange themselves in my present
like shadow puppets on the backs
of my eyelids while i sleep.  

there is an uneven fulcrum
digging into my lower back no
matter how i turn my long
body.

my eyes open into
the same familiar room, with
the same familiar speckles on the
ceiling that they always do.   the
shadows resume their innumerable
forms and i wake
to write another step towards
the beveled edge of immortality.

Kay sarap sigurong matulog ng mahimbing,
Na para bang naiiwan ang mga problema
Sa simpleng pagpikit lamang ng mga mata;
Na paunti-unting naiibsan ang sakit at hapdi
sa bawat hinga, sa bawat saglit;
Na dahan-dahang nawawala ang mga
lamig-lamig ng katawan, mga kalamnan
na ang alam lang ay pagod at paninigas.

Kung ako ma'y tuluyan nang matulog,
Pakiusap -- wag mo na akong gisingin;
Pagka't ako'y masaya na sa kawalan --
ng kahirapan, ng pagdurusa sa mundo.