Western Mindanao

A Visit

Roger B Rueda

 

Visit me in my room 
If ever you have time. 
My room is dark 
And we can 
Play hide- 
And-seek. 
Or you can turn on 
The light and I 
Will bring you to my 
World. Then you'd 
Sculpt me into David 
As if you were 
Michelangelo. 




A Visit


Roger B Rueda

 

Visit me in my room 
If ever you have time. 
My room is dark 
And we can 
Play hide- 
And-seek. 
Or you can turn on 
The light and I 
Will bring you to my 
World. Then you'd 
Sculpt me into David 
As if you were 
Michelangelo. 








Death

This flashed upon my dream: 
A chair carved with leaves and flowers, 
Shellacked and deserted in a grassy field 
Is rained and rotting: 
Who is the sculptor? 

In the middle of the night 
Death as though a seed was flown by the wind 
To my heart and clogged my vein. 

I woke up instinctively and thumped my chest: 
Death sprouted faith: 

I returned to sleep 
With the Sculptor by me.






To You Who Smile So Well

I see you. 
With half any eye: 
My heart of Cupid 
Kept in mothballs 
Springs a leak 
Of another spell. 
I lie in my teeth 
Though in my somnambulism 
Love wells up 
In my mouth. 
I have a skin 
Like a rhinoceros 
But only in this verse. 

Roger B. Rueda






When you left

(for Rio Q. Losaria) 

Then I sat on the rock and 
Splashed riverwater on my feet. 
You sang me farewell 
Like the riverwater that sings 
While it runs away to the sea. 

I don't visit the river anymore. 
It reminds me of you





Angels In The Street

abandoned by their gods 
these little angels 
walk and beg 
their wings are gone 
their clothes so white 
have turned black 
they will grow up 
into demons 

-Roger B Rueda