"highlight" poems
* * * * *
* * *
*
Faces of friends, of people i met earlier
are glittering stars on this late evening's
dark blue sky...their smiles are tattooed
in my mind...they're hunched, going
lower by the days...slowed down by years.
it must be hard and painful...the arching,
the drooping of the neck, the curving spine,
they endure all, 'til each day's end...they rise
each new dawn...do what they still can do,
lest they stagnate in their aging ponds,
diminish to a state, where food, pills, or
forgotten information are forced on them,
......like drugs, injected into the veins
........................
these wee hours bring back the years...
they have been good...never mind the
hard times...there were, there are good ones
life is a long, wide stream of changing hues,
flowing on and on....my water bears the
colors each new day brings...gray, at times
with sadness and gloom....other days,
blacked by despair...some summers, red,
roseate with glee, or green with life and
hope...blue, when trust is spilling, and
the tranquil sea and sky overwhelm,
with a promise of stability..........white,
when accepting......the unacceptable...
........................
the amber grains and i, are alike
ripened enough to be plucked
be pulled out from an existence...the
signs are known...shown...yet, i wait
for when it is due to happen...and while
waiting, the stalks sway, play and dance
and enjoy the sun and wind...and i,
while i still can...walk, jump, climb hills
and valleys in this mammoth space
of land and water.............called life
...................
the sounds of my days, i still hear,
i am a lute, a harp, a cello...playing
off-key.....out of tune at times,
my strings are my graying hair,
i still can't stop dying the gray
i still want to highlight the dark,
but, one day, all these will cease...
............
one night, my face will be in one of those
many stars...glittering on a dark blue sky
sending a smile, to my loved ones.
...................
(there is no other way,
but forward
all are headed
towards an end.)
Sally
© Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan
June 26, 2018
Jun 25, 2018
Jun 25, 2018 at 11:31 PM UTC
You are the city
I am trying to get back into nature. Your bright lights beckon me back-
But your pollution is killing me
City officials refuse to address the problem
Even when I write up a
petition and policy
to highlight the issues- I am ignored. There are natural bright lights in nature
- the ones I miss-
life with fresh air is positivity.
It's my fault I allowed the city
to become polluted.
Apr 19, 2014
Apr 19, 2014 at 12:59 AM UTC
when i was a freshman one of my friends told me that there was a girl who was talking about me
asking why i was pretending to be straight and that everyone could tell that i was gay
my friends and i laughed it off like children and i quipped “i’m not pretending anything, just ask anyone and they’ll know”
now, i think of the rainbow socks, the only thing i own with a rainbow on it, being shoved down to the bottom of my sock drawer as if it would pop out at any minute and proclaim it’s existence if it were any higher. now, i think of the rainbow highlight that i applies in the bathroom at midnight, pausing every now and again to make sure i was alone. Now, i think of the pride nail art that i scrubbed off my nails minutes after i painted it on. now, i think of the last word in a poem that i wrote and turned in, scared i was being too obvious with the word they.
now, i think of the horrible creature sitting in my chest that simultaneously begs to never tell my secrets and to also scream them from the roof tops. i think of the sludge that lives in me and climbs up my throat, whispering safety into my ear while also ripping apart everything it touches. i think of the pain i feel whenever i say that i’m gay, because it makes things easier if the works sees me as a girl who loves other girls.
before thinking of this poem i had sat back and wondered how many bottles it would take of the various prescription medicines that my parents kept in the kitchen cabinet to **** me. when i remembered the name they would put on the tombstone i stopped and walked away. i remember the time where i couldn’t walk away and i had reached in and grabbed a full bottle of ibuprofen and i took a single one, hoping that my screaming head could be sated by the feeling of a single pill crawling down my throat.
i had a dream last night about someone called addison.
they looked me in the eyes and before i even knew what they looked like their physical form flickered until they were a bright shining star in a vaguely human form.
they sat next to me as we floated in a void on a picnic blanket and they put their arm around my shoulder which felt like a hug from someone i used to know but had forgotten
i stared at their glasses that looked too much like mine as they flickered in and out of existence and they told me i was not where i was supposed to be.
i didnt ask them where but they heard it anyways as if breaking into my thoughts. they answered that they could not tell me and when i thought why they said they didn’t want to spoil the fun of a brighter future for them and me.
i woke up with the taste of lavender on my tongue and the desire to change my name.
Aug 6, 2018
Aug 6, 2018 at 1:11 AM UTC
Dear Kailey,
Polyamory was not our downfall
I changed as a person
Much quicker than I anticipated
So I can imagine it felt
Catastrophic to you
Polyamory was not our problem
But it did highlight the ones we had
The reason I left you
Primarily was due to codependency
But more than that
It was your inability to compromise
I told you I needed space
You said you needed me
And that was the end of that conversation
When we tried to create boundaries
To help our adjustment to poly
What you gave me were rules
And when I tried to alter them slightly
You told me I was not compromising
I made my own mistakes too
Neither of us are perfect
And I'm not writing this to hurt you
This is for me alone
Because I've been blaming only myself
Since that night your parents took you home
Because you were blaming me
Or too harshly blaming yourself
It's not as black-and-white as that
This is not an attempt at
Relinquishing myself of blame
This is a bare acknowledgement
For me
That I am not bad
Even if I've done bad things
And I am not responsible
Solely
For your pain
I am sorry for my part in it
But I cannot
And will not
Let this responsibility weigh me down alone
Because I matter too
And it wasn't easy for me either
But it's OK
To love and care for someone
Without being in relationship with them
Aug 3, 2018
Aug 3, 2018 at 4:11 PM UTC
My narrow cave is zero colour
a thousand winds that blow over
only blow kohl yet to see an eye.
The sunrise beams out in the morning's hush
as do the sun basks in the swift uplifting rush.
Ah, only to miss out again like yesterday,
there was a cave it tried to highlight.
Then lost me in the dark found a Moon
heavily tilted yet over a shady turf.
Every star eying upon it knows that
tomorrow again, this will host the sunrise!
Dec 9, 2018
Dec 9, 2018 at 11:40 PM UTC
TO PUT the art and talent of Mindanaoan fashion design into the spotlight, Kagay’anon fashion designers put their hands together to organize the 5th Mindanao Fashion Summit at the Limketkai Center Rotunda from August 4 to 6, every 4 p.m.
“Being a core event of the Higalaay festival, the opening salvo, the Mindanao Fashion Summit can really highlight fashion designers here in Cagayan de Oro and also in different points of Mindanao to let everyone see what they can do in the world of fashion design especially now that there are only so few opportunities for these designers to show off their works to the public. This is why we have the Mindanao fashion Summit because Kagay-anon designers believe that even if they join national fashion shows like the Philippine Fashion week, most of them still aren't getting the right encouragement as a fashion designer.” said Robbie Pamisa, the overall organizer of the event.
The Fashion Summit is a three-day event composed of seven sub-categories such as the Mindanaoan collection, the Menswear collection, and the Ororama orange collection for the first day, the Guest Designers’ collection, the Fashion Institute of the Philippines collection and the Loop Lifestyle Fashion Show for the second day, and the Holiday Grand collection for the third day which will serve as the culmination of the fashion event.
Mindanaoan Fashion designers from Cagayan de Oro as well as Davao, Butuan, Iligan, and Bukidnon have come to showcase their talents. Some of the fashion geniuses of the event include Alma Mae Roa, Angela Soriano, Ann Semblante, Benjie Manuel, Boogie Musni Rivera, Gil Macaibay III, John Mark Magellan’s, Joshua Guibone, Juniel Doring, Kiko Domo, Mark Christopher Yaranon, and Mavy Cooper de Leon.
One of the highlights of the event is the Oro Fashion Designers’ Guild and the Designers Assembly featuring a collection of clothes using Mindanao material such as the Mindanao silk. Sponsors such as Ororama and The Loop Towers will also be showcasing their products in the fashion event.
“Even student fashion designers from the Fashion Institute of the Philippines have been encouraged to participate so that they will be able to experience how a fashion show works. This is also a way for us to fulfill our mission to be another avenue for fashion designers to show what they have,” Paisa said.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/short-formal-dresses | www.marieaustralia.com/long-formal-dresses
Aug 6, 2016
Aug 6, 2016 at 12:12 AM UTC
Golden Valleys, Growing Naturally
<>
This is a Logo in Ireland, Dairygold™
is the company.
I would safely say, that there is hardly
an acre in rural Ireland devoid of some
form of artificial fertilisers, pesticides,
herbicides or fungicides.
(Ireland is riddled with consumer cancer)
If the Logo was written as follows,
a comma between Growing & Naturally
plus an exclamation mark ! which should
really be a question mark ? (in the absence
of the comma between Valleys & Growing)
i.e.
Golden Valleys, Growing, Naturally! or ?
Then it might pass.
Let's see if we can force them to change
it and by doing so, it will highlight the
fraudulent practice of duping consumers
with blatant grammatical omissions and
the wordplay illusion by clever marketers.
(Well, perhaps not as clever as they thought)
ps.
I spent all morning, wondering should they
be a comma in the last paragraph, in the
afternoon, I removed it. Oscar Wilde.
Jan 8, 2019
Jan 8, 2019 at 3:27 AM UTC
Roses,
Highlight my bruises.
Sunflowers,
Illuminate Hidden confessions;
Softly,
Like petals;
I roam from wonder to another
Yet Swiftly
I vanish.
Dec 28, 2018
Dec 28, 2018 at 5:33 AM UTC
“every time i feel my stomach convulse it’s a new wave of tears
take vitamins, she says
you should just eat, she says
you got skinnier, another says
“eat! eat! haven’t you been eating!? and this bandaid! quit cutting yourself, kalena”
and for a moment i think it’s truth
i think it’s honest
i shout “i do eat! they’re just cat scratches”
and if she would have lifted up that bandaid
she would have learned it was honest
it was truth
but it was melted away flesh that she would have found, not torn
but melted
and in the highlight of this moment i see all of my dreams come true
finally, someone notices!
finally, someone cares!
but yet she’s willing to stop eating. to make sure that i do.
my little thing. an entire 98 pounds, not by choice.
so unhealthy, so sick. all the time. so **** tired.
she would stop eating for me.
and though it doesn’t help, the thought is comforting. it should be disturbing.
it is. in the way that if she stopped eating…
she would lose weight.
and then i would fight harder and harder until my rib bones were sticking out so far they were larger than my chest.
emaciated.
bony fingers that boys don’t want to hold and girls don’t want to kiss.
hair that slides out with the slightest tug.
no one wants that.
except me, of course.
i want that.
i want to weigh 85 pounds.
i want to die.
i want to be so high on the emptiness that i die.
i faint. and they cannot wake me up.
eternal sleep. forever peace. and the best part of all?
I would be horrifically tiny in even the smallest coffin. “
Oct 23, 2012
Oct 23, 2012 at 9:01 PM UTC
Her face, flawless and filtered, flows over
my chest, ribs, stomach, hips, fitting the curved
mounds of my body, and even within simplicity
of thread and dye, I sense her presence as her face
hangs from my frame, a statement louder than pillow-lips,
Nancy Sinatra-hair and a glamorous 60’s ***** face.
When paired with leggings and an artfully-distressed denim jacket,
I become a member of the “freshman generation of degenerate
beauty queens,” a hipster fallen to the circumstance of youth,
but I wear her face and the romance of it all reminds me:
we are not defined as Lolitas lost in the hood, or distant,
airy voices in a sea of crude jokes and half-baked skits
meant to highlight shortcomings of a person who doesn’t give
two ***** Lana fits me better than my ribbed, red
sweater and even amidst gods and monsters,
this T-shirt makes pretty last, and I am just as cool.
Apr 8, 2015
Apr 8, 2015 at 12:33 PM UTC
I hope i'm fooling everybody
With my fake gimmick of a cover up
And I hope it doesn't highlight my lack of beauty
But the only thing i fear it highlights is the lie that drips from my fake
*"I don't give a ****
Oct 4, 2014
Oct 4, 2014 at 6:11 AM UTC
Upon the loss of the dinosaurs, so plentiful,
Back in the land before time when life wasn’t so dull,
Tall trees, blue skies, green grasses, deep dark water,
Nature as it was meant to be, with volcanoes that couldn’t be hotter.
This was the world you lived in before it came to an end.
A meteor? A flood? Maybe. But obviously it was something you could not mend.
Velociraptor, T-Rex, Triceratops, you’re all gone.
A species once so valiant, nobody stood in their way, not one.
Shaping some of the animals we have today, dinosaurs are like, square one.
From a 40ft menace to a lone iguana, isn’t evolution fun?
The highlight of the prehistoric era,
If you think I’m awkward because of my enthusiasm for dinos, then call me Michael Cera.
Like a bad ending to a good movie,
Your demise was something that nobody wanted to see.
The world would be a better place with a dinosaur here and there.
Some people wouldn’t be a fan, but does it sound like I care?
I think every single dinosaur is badass,
Even the herbivores that only eat grass.
If you’re the type of person that’s glad dinosaurs are dead,
Then I wish it was YOU that was hit by the meteor instead.
May 23, 2014
May 23, 2014 at 8:56 PM UTC
I wanted to be more
More than the way my eyebrows arch
More than the size of my *******
More than the length of my legs
More than what size jeans I wear
More than the color of my eyes
More than my body shape
I am more
I'm the music I listen to
And the songs that make me feel something
New
I'm my favorite books
And the lines I highlight just so I never forget
Them
I'm the times I've been hurt
But even more so I'm the times I picked myself back
Up
I'm my favorite movies
And the scenes that made me feel I was a character
Too
I'm not just the beauty you see
It's much deeper than that
I'm the love I give
But I never let myself be defined by the love I don't
Receive
Because the defintion of me isn't the people who refuse to love me
Dec 5, 2014
Dec 5, 2014 at 12:44 AM UTC
Where do you think you're going *****
Stop, I need to tell you some things which,
May break your pretty silicon heart,
So buckle yourself up, I'm about to start.
You think that with your haughty smile,
You're better than all of us by a mile,
Sad to shatter your fantasy world,
Now it's time to watch reality unfurl.
My beauty and strength make your toes curl,
My unbreakable spirit makes you want to hurl,
You can crush me beneath your six-foot frame,
But just know that there'll never be any shame.
Honoured to be the topic of your day,
The highlight of the **** you say,
I'm sneezing from the stench, my eyelids they twitch,
The rumours you spout, make my ears itch.
Unhappy to see my smiling face?
Do your eyes burn, to behold my grace?
Exit to the left right out of my life,
Before I come after you with a ten-inch knife.
Aug 22, 2015
Aug 22, 2015 at 8:53 PM UTC
Everything is broken. Broken clocks, broken doors, broken spirits. Struggling just to softly breathe your name without my voice breaking. Shredded letters, meaningless scripts to highlight just how much my life is a cleverly constructed piece of satire, poorly printed on a newspaper page that no one reads, tossed to the sidewalk and stomped into fibers that do nothing but pollute the already ***** puddles on the side of the street. The words upon that parchment, the ink within the pages, is insignificant. I am insignificant. I am a vagrant. I am a knot in a tree trunk, and when a tree falls in the forest, it screams. It silently screams to be held back up by it's brothers, by its friends, by its family, but none of them move. They let it fall and they watch it rot.
Mar 31, 2014
Mar 31, 2014 at 9:19 PM UTC
The long hours of the night highlight our inner insecurities
Relating to the change slowly disappearing in a clanking machine
My stomache burns
I didn't suggest to pay this, indebted to the alcohol
No filter to the lewd humorous words we speak
As we cruise away from the wild eyed life, bits of lint collect on the drivers glass
The mistakes and embarrassment blinds our minds
A push of a button, watching the grey fluff slide down the wind shield
Turning into a tumble **** rolling down the loneliest highway
No commitment to the grief
The clouds smother the brown smudged mountains
A white submissive canvas, I see
My metaphoric future becomes one with the peeks
My heart weeps as they come back into view
The world once teaching me, is now background beauty
Where shall this car take me
Apr 29, 2016
Apr 29, 2016 at 1:20 PM UTC
**"how can you be in bed so fast?
we just got home five minutes ago?"***
*You got girlie stuff to do babe.
unlock the front door,
thirty steps
to our bed.
maybe stop to basketball shoot
***** clothes into a swish
of the hamper's netting
or,
maybe not.
turn off the overhead left handed in
a single motion, a highlight video,
both left foot socks
hid in the snow boots,
outside the front door.
you understand.
my unseen
girlie stuff,
requires me in state of ******
while you be
prepping.
face washed, creamed,
hair n' tooth brushed,
other stuff,
unmentionable.
am doing
my thing...
my girlie stuff*
starting a
poem interruptus
my pre-Coitus exercise,
just a new love poem
conception,
initiated,
doing my thing,
waiting on you
primped n'pumped,
décolletage clad,
to give me that
girlie stuff
closing stanza
Feb 7, 2015
Feb 7, 2015 at 12:08 PM UTC
I wish you were a book
my book
so that I could keep and read you
anytime I wanted to
and depart from the real world
for a while with you
I could take care of your cover
especially your spine
I promise not to judge
the cover, summary, and your story
I could flip through your pages
in able for me to
know your past
live in your present
and know what your future beholds
In your story if I stumble upon your
flaws, secrets, past, memories
no matter how awful it maybe
I'd still highlight all of the things
I admire about you
I would share your stories
how you've got a great adventure
with the best plot twists
and how you've overcome your fears
reached your goals
and made it through your struggles
I promise to put you on a special spot
in a bookshelf of all of my other books
you'd be my favorite one
I swear I could reread you over
and over and over
and over and over
and over and over
again
like you were the only book
that ever existed
I'd take you everywhere and anywhere
to also tell my story
and together we could make new memories
share the sunsets, sunrise, and watch the stars
because with you
I am truly happy
I wish you were a book
my book
how gently you let the ink flow
through your pages
for every word of each page
I've got it memorized
each phrase, line and quote
has got me hooked
with all the sweet things you've said
Nov 19, 2013
Nov 19, 2013 at 11:32 PM UTC
Every Tuesday night
From January to April
The highlight of my night
Was a chocolate croissant.
I would sit and listen
To theories and methods,
Literature and research,
And on break I would have one.
I would order it each night
With salivating anticipation.
As I handed over my money
They put it in the oven.
And each night
They would call out
"Chocolate croissant?"
And I would grab the bag.
I would devour that morsel
With joy and elation,
And as I felt it go down
My chest would warm -
Not only from
The warm croissant,
But also from the joy
Warming my heart.
It was the best part
Of those horrible evenings
Of literature and research
Theory and methods.
Sometimes,
If I was feeling spicy,
I would get two -
One on each break...
And sometimes
On Thursdays
I would get two more
For History and PR.
Yes,
Those chocolate croissants
Got me through
My last semester of college.
When I was feeling stressed,
Or feeling down
From the subject matter,
I would eat one,
And I would feel better.
And I bet
As you are reading this
You want one.
Do yourself a favor,
Go buy yourself
A chocolate croissant -
And enjoy it.
Let it help you escape
From your worries
And your cares
For about 90 seconds
As you devour that
Delicious pastry.
And let it warm your chest
With chocolate and joy.
Apr 2, 2016
Apr 2, 2016 at 12:56 AM UTC
No matter how tired my legs get...I'll never stop chasing you.
No matter how much my chest hurts...It'll never stop beating for you. As I get nervous, anxious...excited about what you're about to say.
No matter how much my mind spins...I'll never stop thinking about you, your feistiness, your smile, the way your eyes look at me a certain way.
I'll never stop trying.
I'll never stop trying to make things better.
I'll never stop showing you what you deserve. Clear skies, a peaceful mind, forehead kisses and "I miss you" at the end of each letter. I'll never stop. Even when you want me to because I know you don't want me to truly stop...and go away.
I'll never stop because not many people can make me feel this way.
The best part of the story, and always the highlight of my day.
"Thank you!" as she would say. Lol
But...
I just wannted to make her smile.
I hope I can do that now, tomorrow...and always.
I'll never stop.
Nov 30, 2014
Nov 30, 2014 at 9:27 PM UTC
Habang nag-iisa
At walang kamalay-malay
Ako'y nadampot ng mga
Naghahanap ng karamay
Nayaya ng promotor
At hindi na makatatakas
Hinamon ng mga tomador
At nagkasukatan na ng angas
Marami nang bote ang walang laman
Nakabasag na rin ng mga baso
Paubos na ang mga pulutan
Amoy na rin ang halimuyak ng chiko
May di matapos-tapos na asaran
May mga pikon ngunit puno parin ng tawa
May mga tulog na at may nagkukulitan
Mayroon din namang nagkukwento ng paluha
Walang humpay rin ang kantahan
Punong-puno ang lamesa ng kwnetuhan
Rinig hanggang langit ang halakhakan
Tuloy-tuloy lang ang kasiyahan
Masayang salo-salo
Matibay na pagsasamahan
At ang highlight dito
Ay ang hangover kinabukasan
Sana'y king bilis mawala
Gaya ng hangover kinabukasan
Ang aking mga alaala
At ang sakit ng iyong paglisan
Dec 21, 2016
Dec 21, 2016 at 6:43 AM UTC