Two poems longlisted in the Liquid Amber Prize published
this corner
here in this corner where
cabbage whites skitter, then
doze in the blue repose of
lavender, pale-flecked garden
skinks assemble for consultations
lilies red as harlot lips resist
all winds, hydrangea with heads
like bobbin lace seek eucalyptus shade
water-drops fly up from
wings of blue wrens, asperges me
is this the terminus of all
my longings here in this sanctuary
at whose vestibule I hesitate
expecting both the comfort of holy
waters and the anxiety of snakes?
Hieroglyphs of Breath
I loved you in a another country
with words not mine
with daylight- textbook phrases
ako si Juan, taga Australia
nights my words on bat-wing
skittered across rooftops
between us, slipped through the window
of your sleeping room, wrote
secret hieroglyphs on your
naked skin
words licked away
our shared bitter spaces
left just bloodied hand-prints
– my agnostic stigmata
we scanned each other’s
bodies, watched
for smiles that might mean
something (or nothing)
a turn of the head that might
say something else
reduced ourselves to blind semaphores
of hands and flags
how do you
translate what
bubbles up from the belly
of loneliness, roars white-hot
between the thighs, incinerates
all resolution
enunciate
this something that has no other words?
I remember
paalam mylove paalam means goodbye
