Coffee Sick

copyright (c) 2007 by Jophen Baui

Coffee-mug seduces my dry lips
Coaxing me to plunge but what gives?

While it sits smug on my desk
Wistful reflection hails hope
For a day's pall.

Memo listings and dates
Romance monotony. But our affair was a habit
Like a baby's sucking of its mother's breast.

Weaned, I whimpered in want
No severe savor, no sobering tang.
Caffeine, where indeed was thy sting!

Quick! Immerse myself in opaque creek
Dive in pitch-black, mordant dip.

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.

Tugon kay Nataniel

Juan 1:46-51

kaylan matitigil
mga kabalbalan
sino ang susupil
sa katiwalian?

sukat na sa yabang
singtaas ng langit
mahirap,mayaman
ang puso ay ganid.

bakit pumapatay
bakit nagnanakaw
bakit sinungaling
bakit nanlalamang?

D'yan ba sa Nazareth
ay may pusong wagas
dayong kasama mo
dalisay ang hangad?

..................

ikaw si Nataniel
matuwid at tapat
sa lilim ng igos
katulad mo'y sinag-

kislap na sisilip
sa kumpol ng dahon
hinagis na bit'win
sa lupang may lilom.

halika't sumunod
upang masaksihan
pagbukas ng langit
sa sangkatauhan

at manhik-manaog
mga anghel ng Diyos
sa langit, sa lupa
na aking tahanan

hindi magtatagal
walang maiiwan
ni isa mang imbi
pusong makalaman.

inanod na kahoy

Kung ang minimithi ko ay ikaw
hinihingi mo sa akin
na ako'y maging kahoy
na inanod
sa iyong dalampasigan
upang

paputlain ng araw
bayuhin ng alon
kaskasin ng buhangin

hanggang
mauka nang mauka
matuyo at malapok
handa na
sa sindi

na magpapaliyab

sa apoy

na susunog

upang maging usok

na magpapabanal.

lalamunin ako ng apoy
walang matitira kundi
abo
mainit-init na buhangin
at alat ng asin.

salin ng tulang "Firewood" ni Craig Steeland, mula sa New Christian Poetry, Alwyn Marriage, Editor

Oyayi ni Maria

Salin ko ng tula ni Luci Shaw na may pamagat na "Mary's Song". Mula sa antolohiyang Listen to the Green, Harold Shaw Publishers, pahina 66

Oyaying karaniwan, gatas sa 'king dibdib
ang nagpapainit sa munting bituin
hubad at mahimbing sa 'king mga bisig
(tulog na... ikaw na nagbuhat pa sa malayo).
Ngayon, sa yakap ko, busog
maligaya ang katawan ng Diyos.
Tahimik na natutulog
siyang sinakbibi ng taglay na lakas
ang sandigdigan. Nahihimlay siya
na ang pilik-mata'y di pa pumipikit
kahit na kailanman.

(Anong banayad ng kanyang paghilik
na para bang di siya humihinga.)
Minsa'y binulabog ng hininga niya
ang madilim na kailaliman
upang umusbong ang daigdig.
Dinuduyan ng huni ng ibon, bulong ng dayami
Siya'y nananaginip
walang musikang naririnig
mula sa kanyang ibang daigdig.
Paghinga, bibig, teynga, mata
ay sa munting sanggol
gayong siya ay higit pa sa lahat ng langit
sa lahat ng araw.

Ninuno ng walang hanggan, ngayon
siya'y bata.Tulad ko
sumibol sa lupa, nakapako
sa mundo ng dalita, nakakulong
upang ako'y lumaya,
bulag sa aking sinapupunan
upang malaman kong nagwakas na
ang aking kadiliman, ipinanganak ko
upang ako'y muling isilang.
At upang mahayuma ang aking katauhan
kailangang makita ko
na siya'y gutay-gutay.

Unfinished

James 1:2-4

It's true my faith

Can’t move a mountain

There is no measure to what I can’t believe

The Lord telling me to peel off skin

Me wanting, preferring warmth

Comfort is not in nakedness

Nor through a piercing love

But through sheer, cutting pain.

View from the Terrace

I tire myself over a book
Stocking insights for future verses
Otherwise limited to the color and smell
Of spaced out neighborhood
Devoid of will and yet full
Of natural excesses:
In the vicinity of pots
Creeping vines unnamed and unbecoming
Are as wanton as their dreams.
Indecisive bougainvilleas searching for a trellis
Hanging on to wash lines,
No wind touches a petal of their pink profusion.
Each stem of neighbor fortune plant
Struggles to be free from juvenile entanglements
Of surreptitious vines clinging to posts
Blackened with secure grime.
Every will of greatness have been tampered.
Pools of mud from overflowing canals
In humid April have dulled visions
Immuned them even to the noise
Of children's nonsense
That can break through
This weary plainness.
copyright (c) Jophen Baui April 4, 2007

Panaginip

Nanaginip ako kagabi
Lumilipad daw sa ibabaw ng mga yerong bubong
Palipat-lipat, patalun-talon
Parang si spiderman sa squatter’s area
Maynus yung mascara
At yung raber na kasuotang itim at pula.
Sa halip ay nakanaytis daw
Puting-puti tulad sa mga Chinese telenovela
Maynus yung espada
At yung galing sa pakikipabaka;
At wala raw akong suot sa paa
At di ko na maisip kung sinong katulad
Sino bang nakapaa sa mga soap opera
Si bakenang ba?
Hindi bale na dahil mahaba naman ang aking buhok,
Animo’y hinahanginan ng electric fan sa harap, sa likod
Dahil ang talsik ay paikot
Maynus yung mestisa look

Ano ba ang punto ng aking panaginip
Sa imahinasyon ay sangkatutak ang makulit
At bubulong-bulong na lamang ang mga tula
Dahil di makasingit na parang tulala.

Gusto ko sanang managinip nang gising
Lumipad nang walang katulad.

For the child whose eyes were wide open (A condolence)

Are you thinking what I'm thinking
You are heaven's victim
You are experiencing the whip
Of nature's anger
In these troubled days?

Yet you are five years old
Your mind, empty, your body wrapped in mud
Where from you came.
Were you party to a mountain's depressions
That you have to suffer its revenge?

Although you have baby thoughts
Your eyes are wide open
You saw the landslide, how it knocked
Bodies who should have held your hands
You fell from blows of rock and soil
Where each blow should have been of the future.

Should I be thankful
Because your eyes are wide open and you might live?
Or should I rejoice because with those open eyes
You know what it's like to be soil
What it's like to be mud, what it's like to be carried by rain?

I am deafened by the silence of your cries.