POETRY

On Living and Leaving by Sums Paguia

The ones who live are at lost Of the joys of living. The ones Who dwell, and continue to strut Are those who carry Sorrow on Their tired backs. As they ache for Closure, the Universe plays with Their fate. They drag their tired Bodies, struggling to move Forward. Struggling to reach For the sunset. No. They don't Get the privilege to leave. They Are force to stay and rot within. The ones who live die, always, as The sun rises. --- Sums is a former English teacher who decided to leave all her baggage in the institution, and sail away to the universe-knows-where to chase her long overdue dream.

Catalyst by Anne Shane Marie Baluca

(For Nanay O: who first taught me about ‘real life’. whose tough wisdom only softened me much later; who loved me enough to hurt me in all the right ways.) Nanay– I cannot tell you how many times my brain got in a street fight with my heart again. It’s when I’m at the height of the burning punches that I remember you most clearly: the times you housed me in and first taught me spiritual matters. Through your choices, you told me softly yet sternly that at the start and end of every choice: “Will it make Jehovah God happy?” My forehead then– would simply crease. Nanay– I cannot tell you how many wins felt like a loss when it hurts to choose to be wise, sometimes. And there are times when I'd wish to go back to our “summer home”, with you there in your profound wisdom, yet would chuckle still at my quick, cheeky replies; where every bruise would just be a magic touch away . So that I could tell you, Nay: that the way you loved, no matter how, or especially because it was tough, that I was changed and everyone you loved dearly for the better, eventually. Nay, even as a memory, you linger and mold me. ---

Anne Shane Marie Baluca currently resides in Davao City. She is a graduate of UP Mindanao and an instructor at University of Mindanao and a sign language volunteer to the deaf and mute.