Might

Bare-footed, she ran around the empty battlefield...
With an indomitable spirit, she's fortified...


Adrifted, she has lost tight clasp
On a sturdy steel once...
Such steel oversoon rusted by greedy pangs of time...
It was her companion,
her sheath,
her hope...


At one point...she felt forsaken, helpless...
Forthwith, dauntless than ever...


With nothing on her weary hands, she greeted
wild birds and hungry lions...
Will gallantly withstood...


Without steel, but in rest, she'd fix
Her glare
On a four-leaf clover,
Lying softly in her soiled palm,
her bundle of strength...

Lolita

We both have the same brown proud eyebrows,
Green shiny eyes shaped like small almonds..
Wrinkles glorifies her face, sagging skin accentuates
my every sides...
Our cheekbones now out of sight,
as our flesh falls down like curtains as we frown...
We still have the same stretch of smile
That no dim stars can deny,
leaving out that undeniable crack in mine...


We're twins...
But sly eyes won't dare credit...
She was the lovely fragile queen in her youthful years,
I'm the cleft-lipped other, unsweetened...
She's ever the unsparing one,
And I'm evermore the one in dire need of hand...


We cherished the same man...
In the midst of the deafening farce,
I surfaced...
His stark hands chose mine,
And for the first time,
I cradled the vast grandeur of real beauty
In my faint calloused hands...


While the ever alluring other
Condemned hers...

Salamin

Naaaninagan ko sa naka-sungaw na liwanag
Sa iyong mga mata
Na ika'y hapo na...
Marahil, ikaw ang tunay na may sala
Sa pag-hila ng sarili mong gabi
At sa iyong pag-dalangin sa pagbuhos
Ng ulan...


Ramdam ko ang iyong pagtitikis,
ang iyong pagtitiis sa nakabibingi na lamig...
Ninais kong abutin ang iyong mga bisig,
Ngunit tulad mo,
Ang aking mga palad ay namamahinga
Sa basang lupa,
Tulad mo ring nais maka-hagap
ng maligamgam na pag-asa.


Ngunit habang humahawi
Ang itim na kumot ng kalangitan,
Unti-unting sumusungaw
Ang sinag ng liwanag
Na kumislap sa balikat
Nating dalawa...


Tikom ang ating mga labi.
Ngunit sa ating isipan,
Pagugulungin natin
Ang ating mga kapalaran
Nang sabay....

Mates

Hearing my own heavy stomps towards your cave
With my own voice of disapproval...
I keep going
With every sour nerve pulling me back...
Nearing,
Fearing the wolves' eyes
In anticipation...
Nothing of those can go through
My sanctuary, my anxiety...
Amidst cold darkness,
Body's yearning for the blinding light...
Prostrated, praying...