THREE EKPHRASTIC POEMS
in the form of hay(na)ku sequences
[Click on images to enlarge]
What
happens to
courtship after disenchantment?
Lovers
discovering that
universes between them
can
never be
merged as one,
and existence forever
lonely and
desperate.
She forgets her
beauty in
sadness,
turns
her back;
while he, leaning
hand-to-chin
surely lets
heaviest doubt overshadow
her
once perfect
and irreplaceable soul.
Stubborn or star-crossed?
Should or
shouldn't?
Everlasting or temporary?
Love ever
ministers,
both antidote and
catalyst to
suffering. ***
Botong Francisco's Bayanihan
Why I Am Not Friends with My
Neighbors
Mirrors are dwindling
in America.
Walls
arise to take
their place.
Could
Botong Francisco's image
of Filipino
bayanihan --
an entire community
bearing aloft
their
neighbor's nipa hut --
ever be
recreated?
Still I avert
my eyes,
say
nothing. Choose silence
over recognition.
Easier
to long for
romantic pasts,
than
to blow wide
open reality's
truth.
***
Dan H. Dizon's Magat Salamat
Dan H. Dizon's Magat Salamat, Chief of Tondo
Even mad defiance
would not
mask
fright,
perceptible still
through his bellowing
countenance. Mouth agape
ready to
swallow
colonizer bullets, lips'
curvature downturned,
framing
sharp teeth. Nostrils
flared, jawline
all
edge and angle.
Creased skin
between
furrowed brow tells
another story:
Incertitude.
Bewilderment.
Pain, sadness,
fiercely undying love.
Oh my datu,
my countryman,
teach
me
bravery's use,
its rightful autonomy.
*****
Abigail Licad is a 1.5-generation Filipino American who immigrated to the U.S. with her family at age 13. She received her B.A. from University of California-Berkeley and her M.Phil in literature from Oxford University. Her work has been published in Calyx, Smartish Pace, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times, among others. She has served as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar to Senegal and as Hyphen magazine's editor in chief. Currently, she lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.
