#paolo
Leave if You Can II
I live in the house of poetry.
I ascend her stairs slowly
and leap back down.
I sit in the chair of poetry,
sleep in her bed, eat from her plate.
Poetry has windows
through which mornings and afternoons
fall, and how well she suspends a teardrop
how well she blows until I tumble / With this
I mean to say that
one basket brings
both wounds and bandages.
I love poetry so much that sometimes I think
I don’t love her / She looks at me,
inclines her head and keeps knitting
poetry.
As always, I’ll be the bigger person.
But how to say it / How to tell her
I want to leave / honestly I want to
fry my asparagus…
I see her coming near
with her bottle of oil
and crazed skillet.
I see her,
her little bundle of asparagus
slipping out her sleeve.
Ah her freshness / her chaotic glint
and the way she approaches with relentless meter.
I surrender / I surrender always because I live
in the house of poetry / because I ascend
the stairs of poetry
and also because
I come back down.
— Translated by Lisa Allen Ortiz & Sara Daniele Rivera
Jun 10, 2023
Jun 10, 2023 at 9:02 AM UTC
sa mata ng ordinaryong nilalang:
sa kalangitan madalas kayong naghahabulan
nagtataguan, ng mga liwanag at ng mga nararamdaman.
sa malawak na daigdaig, kayo ang nagbibigay liwanag;
kayo ang hinahanap, kayo ang kailangan.
ang mga bituin
ay kumikislap
patay sindi, 'di makapirmi
ang mga bituin ay
madami, 'di nag-iisa,
kun'di nagkalat na 'isa',
'di isang buo
kun'di isang
sansinukob ng:
naghalong emosyon,
'di mapiling pagkakakilanlan,
daan daang kasinungalingan
makapagtago lamang;
sa liwanag niya,
dahil mas importante siya
dahil siya ang iyong tinitingala,
isang malaking bolang mainit,
nag-aalab,
nakakabulag.
isa kang masokista,
pinili mo ang mapanakit niyang init.
isa kang arsonista,
pinili **** makipaglaro sa apoy.
'di ka naman nag-iisa
ngunit martyr ako,
at ikaw ang pinili ko.
siya si sol, ikaw si luna,
ako ang mga bituin,
kayo ang naghahabulan,
ako ang kumikislap/
kumukutikutitap/
kumukurap,
ako ang nagbubugulan.
bituing matagal nang patay
May 12, 2021
May 12, 2021 at 1:03 PM UTC
he's the perfect, kind of-
an equation with different variables
(which -coincidentally- matches with mine)
that made (sneaking) finding moments
between (our) rigid bodies
easy; but
we both know, all moments sum up to zero,
is there really
n o t h i n g ?
Feb 14, 2021
Feb 14, 2021 at 4:13 PM UTC