New Road
From a dream through a sudden waking
I now run through an amorphous ground.
I board a cab heading for
The airport, harboring regrets,
Hearing out the dark sky
For a template rhythm of breath.
Beyond two in the morning
The stretch of streetlights
Would only illumine at gasps
Rain-filled skin of memory
I’m struggling to recover,
An inventory of things
I have done thus far;
A cat trapped inside a hamper,
Some failures to act sublime
Among beleaguered weepers.
In a sudden turn of the road
That has long been familiar
As my own sins and redemptions,
I’m surprised to know
Of a new direction like an unexpected
Bulletin of dislocations.
This concrete conveyor of lives,
Has pitched for a fresh clearing,
A paradigm to the break of meanings.
Published in Philippines Free Press (15 February 1997)
Yokoshigure 