Jul 7, 2007
Tonight I wonder if there
are stars out there
behind a gloomy sky
that stretches toward me
like the distant wail of
a street child seeking
warmth from the night air.
I wait patiently for you,
for your smile to break
through the clouds like
sunbeams streaking
through my skin,
taking away the
chill in my bones.
But for now, I close my eyes,
imagining yours that sparkle
much more than any star,
lighting up at the thought
of me while you cover yourself
with this blanket of words
I am sending you.
Labels: from afterglow, love
May 5, 2007
You took my heart
and rubbed it clean
with your sleeve,
erasing its scars by
inhaling my soul and
blowing out the sadness
into the air.
I am sun kissed when you
catch me creeping around
the border of shadows,
tugging me away with
the kind of amusement
a child earns when caught
with hand in cookie jars.
Yet I am still incomplete,
broken in places your warmth
has not been able to mend.
Maybe this time I’ll reach further
for your outstretched hand
so you don’t have to come
down to get me every time.
because I know…
I can love you much better than this.
Labels: from afterglow, love
Feb 4, 2007
We are two parallel lines
that meet while sitting down,
our foreheads touching
like the sides of a triangle.
We trade thoughts through
this illusion of an apex,
and I, in awe, notice
that there is precision
in the subtle ways
you hold my hand.
Your eyes dare me
with mathematical equations
that only have one right answer.
The angles of your mind
rest on black and white premises
that form a concrete
wall of syllogisms that
mock me every time
you speak my name.
You are undaunted and unabashed.
Even so, I smile
at all these numbers
streamlined to fit your life
knowing that this is the only time
I can meet your eyes
without having to calculate.
For when we stand,
our foreheads will no longer touch,
the triangle will shatter and we
revert back to parallel lines
that will never meet.
I am left to face the incongruence of it all.
Labels: from afterglow, love
Jan 4, 2007
your fingertips tracing my lips
let you know that i was real. we were
embracing under the blankets. i was
pressing my body close to you and
breathing in your scent of sweat and perfume,
reminding me of the feel of your arms
when we first danced, reminding me of the trip to Ilocos,
rolling on cement floors until daylight had
seeped through the curtains, reminding me of
sleeping in Kuya Dado’s jeep with the windows down
shivering, forsaking clocks and later calendars. as the
morning dawned, i knew the city below pulsed
with madness and malice. i knew
i might lose you to meaningless faces of
strangers and false friends. i knew
there may be nights of sleeping alone
without your warmth, without your lips.
someday there may be a wedding, maybe
a child or two. there may be screaming
fights over money and other women, maybe
over in-laws. maybe you’ll stop whispering
my name in the dark and someday i might
cease to be real to you. i was
drawing the curtains so the light
didn’t wake you. i was lying down
embracing you under the blankets,
ignoring the phone ringing in the living room,
cherishing the languor of hips and
fingertips tracing my lips, i was
real to you.
Labels: from afterglow, love
