Humalit Poems - Torres
CHILDREN AND LOVERS
Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta
(1934-2010)
children have a special knack for making you feel odd and nude suddenly even with that vaguest piece of smile you ready somewhere to cover a scorching shame when they wickedly naïve and sportive barge in without ceremony and when you finally
shut that errant door on them again to try resuming love you terminate it both ways instead it seems the look of bewilderment and hurt they leave behind you cannot annul henceforth an alienating chill scudding across your upright headboard
flipped into stiffened sheets and consciences weighty and brittle with adult experiences and reconsidered passions confounding even the best intentions but even more final than all finalities fumbled for is the cool crisp “later” you wall them away with somewhere again
love waiting suffers a little falling away you end up wishing lovers are more like gaming children and children less like gnarled impatient lovers.
DREAMWEAVERS
Marjorie M. Evasco
(b. 1953)
We are entitled to our own definitions of the worlds we have in common:
earth house (stay) water well (carry) fire stove (tend) air song (sigh) ether dream (die)
and try out new combinations with key words unlocking power
house on fire sing! stove under water stay, earth filled well die.
The spells and spellings of our vocabularies are oracular in translation
one woman in Pagnito-an another in Solentiname still another in Harxheim and many other women naming half the world together
can move their earth must house their fire be water to their song will their dreams well.
THE CONVERSION
J. Neil C. Garcia
(b. 1969)
It happened in a metal drum. They put me there, my family that loved me. The water
Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta
(1934-2010)
children have a special knack for making you feel odd and nude suddenly even with that vaguest piece of smile you ready somewhere to cover a scorching shame when they wickedly naïve and sportive barge in without ceremony and when you finally
shut that errant door on them again to try resuming love you terminate it both ways instead it seems the look of bewilderment and hurt they leave behind you cannot annul henceforth an alienating chill scudding across your upright headboard
flipped into stiffened sheets and consciences weighty and brittle with adult experiences and reconsidered passions confounding even the best intentions but even more final than all finalities fumbled for is the cool crisp “later” you wall them away with somewhere again
love waiting suffers a little falling away you end up wishing lovers are more like gaming children and children less like gnarled impatient lovers.
DREAMWEAVERS
Marjorie M. Evasco
(b. 1953)
We are entitled to our own definitions of the worlds we have in common:
earth house (stay) water well (carry) fire stove (tend) air song (sigh) ether dream (die)
and try out new combinations with key words unlocking power
house on fire sing! stove under water stay, earth filled well die.
The spells and spellings of our vocabularies are oracular in translation
one woman in Pagnito-an another in Solentiname still another in Harxheim and many other women naming half the world together
can move their earth must house their fire be water to their song will their dreams well.
THE CONVERSION
J. Neil C. Garcia
(b. 1969)
It happened in a metal drum. They put me there, my family that loved me. The water