Sabi ni Moreen

masidhi raw 'yung kasiyahan ko ngayon. Gano'n na nga siguro. Kahit ngayon lang magiging un-apologetic muna ako. Saka ko na titignan sa hinaharap kung mag-a-apologize nga ako. Ang totoo: sana masaya ka rin.

nanggaling kay Martin Villanueva ang unang mga salita sa tulang ito. Nag-rengga kami noon at isinulat niya, 'I reach for your hand and believe in contact.' Martin, panakaw na muna. :)


Poem written after reclining on the grass with a lover

I reach for your hand and put my faith
in contact and the many pinholes

that allow it. I believe in movement
and the consequences of movement.

Dry current coursing through meadows.
Tall grass falling on each other. "Waves,"

you say "are not owned by the sea."
A leaf rests on your shoulder and I

remember Nothing Lasts Forever
inked on a handrail of an escalator.

A leaf falls and I remember rivers
of people funneled by train doors.

“When did it become this hard to get home?”
a passenger stops and sighs and I continue

to read a poem and believe in its power
to break a heart, turn it into sunset,

let the dusk flow through our veins.
I believe that moments could fail

to reveal themselves. I believe we could
stay a little longer in this time of trees

and quiet and spaces that settle between us -
holding each other’s hand, feeling our own.