MASK

Tonight I shall try again

To pry open the wooden

Trunk I have wrapped

Where I have kept my memory;

I shall spread out

And put it on as mask

One of the smiles neatly folded;

In the deepest recesses

Of my pure heart, I shall search

For wellspring

Of the pulsing that is the fountain

Of the chest and your eyes

Will appear in the middle

Of desire gathering a whirl.

In the morning, before

Your dream snaps to an end,

I shall run after

And relay my poem

That will be recited

By the murmur of leaves

Eavesdropping, this poem

Written in the caress

Of the breeze's page;

You will hear again

The word repeated as pleadings,

This flows with the current

Of my warm endearing

To your feeling

That has gone so cold.

But I know that in every

Stroke of the paddle of love-giving

It remains there that there be no trace

Of the worth of my endearment

Left on the face of the water.

And so I keep on

With journeying once more,

I shall be bold in prying open

The wooden trunk I wrap

Where I keep my memory;

Again, I shall spread out and wear as mask

One of the smiles left folded

Where there are the eyes in full watch

Ever-ready to pop out.

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*This is the  English Version of my Iluko poem, MASKARA, which was published in KALLAUTANG:  Poetics of Diversity, Displacement, and Diaspora: Ilokanos in the Americas Writing by Aurelio S. Agcaoili.

I WILL COUNT THE STARS

although the rest of
my heartbeats
is lesser
than the twinkling
stars
if it’s your will for me
to number them before I could
touch your hand,
then I start tonight
and even under the leaf
of tomorrow’s
sunlight I will peek at any speck
of brightness
that hides like a needle
in a haystack.

why should I resist
if you’re the sole petal flaming
my life?

even when my eyes
will close eternally along with
the roots of some vines framing
my graveyard, still there
will be multitude of uncounted stars
left and that, though accepted,
is why I am crying now
and my tears are heavy rains
er0ding the valleys of my heart..

but don’t you know
that in the chest of every
numbered star,
there, I engraved boldly,

“I love you until here,
this never ending universe, Isabella…”?

the white clouds
caught and enlarged the shadow of
my words,
re-echoed poetically to the seas,
cities and immaculate forests..

if you’ll get up from bed
at dawn,
observe how
gentle are the fingers of the sun
touching the hand
of the grass;
if you still remember me, I
would have done the same way
and the dew clinging to
our bodies give lushness
to our souls until eternity..

I WISH TO KISS YOUR MOLE

Hereunder is one of my  poems in iluko language published in KALLAUTANG, poetic of diversity, displacement, and diaspora: ilokanos in  the americas writing which was translated in English and with a critical introduction by Aurelio S. Agcaoili, a writer, a poet, and one of the professors in the University of Hawaii.

Iluko Version:

AGKAK KOMA ‘TA SIDING

Kayatko a pinasen nga agkan                                 1

Ta agpammannimid a siding

Iti ngarab dayta a bibig; siding

A kas tumamtammidaw  nga init

Iti agsapa iti ngatuen ti apagukrad

A petalo ti nalabaga a hibiscus

Ngem napaidam dagiti ramay                               2

Ti rabii ta agtukeng a mangilukat

Iti ridaw ni ridep

A nagsampagaan ti minuyongam

Ngem uray no kasta                                             3

Agur-urayak latta

Iti lukib dagiti nakakidem

A matak, umis-isem a mangkepkepkep

Iti agdadagsen nga arapaap

A sika ken siak

Agpapasto iti duayya dagiti singin a giteb

Ti naginnakkub a barukong iti siled

Ti saan nga agpatingga a tagainep.

English Version of the above iluko poem:

I WISH TO KISS YOUR MOLE

I wish to kiss smoothly                                         1

 Your mole that looks out

On the edge of your lip; mole

That is like a sun taking a peek

In the morning on the newly-

Opened petal of the red hibiscus

But the fingers of the night                                   2

Are selfish for they hesitate

To open the door of sleep

Where the orchard bloomed

With flowers

But despite this                                                   3

I will wait in the eyelid

Of my closed eyes

Smiling while holding tight

My pregnant dream

That you and I shall be satiated

By the lullaby of the entwined throbbing

Of chests in an embrace

In the room of an endless sleep.

 

GODDESS

 

 

Go ahead, talk 

to me.

In front of you, I am 

glued by the enchanting

lyrics of your eyes.

Twin eyes, their color 

changes all the time.

They’re wings of a wild butterfly

in February-flapping extracted

scent on my face; making my heart

to twinkle like how a star

magically pounds in the sky.

Even the flowers in this

rainy Manoa or the mimicking 

black mynahs – they pause 

from dancing hula

as they look at you.

 

But, Deity

these lips sealed

when I am with you.

 

On this patch of

grass, I long

to see  my silhouette

sitting down 

passionately beside 

your lone  shadow

with these strong arms 

around you.

HONEYED MOON

I wish I could fuse
my breath to your lips,
your respiration
smells like fresh meadows in
this dewy breaking of dawn-
enlivening,

sweet,

invigorating.The tides
are cadences
of my breathing,
peaceful,
endearing
and as a solitary
earth, I feel
your heaving as you revolve
around me,
o  honeyed moon.
My desire is not
epitomized
through serenading maya’s
on rooftops
or waltzing  lovebirds
on branches  of palm trees.
Sent love letters, too
or bouquet
of flowers knocking
your door,
outwit not my way
how I draw closer to you.
But I offer myself to you
tonight-  catch me,
accept me
as a handful of rice
thrown outside the window
as you rise behind
the hawaiian mountains
to fold darkness
of this starless sky.