Life
also
treks
uphill.
Rocky
roads. 
Summits
conquered.
We're
ha­ppy.

Marahil di n’yo po tanto
Halaga ng leksyon ninyo
Bawa’t tula, gintong puro
Pag-ibig sa wikang Pino

Bawat talatang piniho
Nagbukas ng mata’t ulo,
Florante’y bayaning nobyo
Laura’y bayang Pilipino

Gurong minahal, idolo
Parang anak kami, oo
Kahit iba’y magugulo
Di malilimot, Mam Lojo . . .

“I think that I shall never see”
a tree thin as phylogeny,

looks poor, no fruits nor leaves for tea,
Yet means so much as Darwins see.

rooted, unrooted, a weird tree,
well, Nature, too, selects weirdly.

No other tree much affects me,
keeps changing my taxonomy,

splitting-lumping, lumping-splitting,
because more data keep coming.

“Poems are made by fools like” you,
but cladograms, don’t make me blue.

Keep
writing,
keep
words
flowing,
keep
breathing . . .
Poetry's
beautiful,
living . . .

Red
roses
last
Valentine’s,
now
wilted.
Love's
a
tree -
Evergreen.

one life
seventeen years
two parents
three bullets
many dreams, ambitions,

Four negotiators:

How much?
Great price drop!
Pick your choice –
Sell it?
or . . .

Buy One – Take All!
          character
                    honor
              ­                freedom . . .

Bouncing, rebounding
on the floor of my memory -
the ball of my elder sister’s jackstones
and the lead washer of my elder brother’s sipa
travelling to and fro
the tops and yoyos
among the imaginary bread doughs
of gathered dust
from that childhood
sprinkled with the *** of yesterday
to bake make-believe
rice puddings
and rice cakes
- they seem to be spoiled now
in the food cupboards of computers
and eventually interred
in the graveyards of cellular phones

In the cemetery of memories
the ghost of poverty still haunts
never, ever unescapable

for every gulp of you
warmly soothes
the throats of scenarios
of all dramas and movies
in that nesting home
now decrepit, debilitated:
          after the day’s toils:
          you helped me swallow the lump of aromatic rice
          - cooked by Mother - the old fragrant stock
          that she loaned from the vendor from Quezon
          not even a piece of dried fish accompanying
          nothing else, only you, my brewed coffee
          nice both as dip and soup.