On Washing Clothes on Easter

Seven days before yesterday
the house was a frenzy

of Nica and Trisha’s teenage ribbings,
Koko and Renzo’s pokemon trading,
Lala and Jaja’s ‘Maripets’,
Mother’s endless rolling of her chair,
Ninang and Kakang Max’s coming and going,
our family’s constant drive to and from my brother’s pool at the “site” ,
my two-day hosting of a friend,

and always --
a setting aside of laundry.

Easter came,
The laundry had its day

That’s more or less how I spent my birthday.