Man of Earth

by Amador T. Daguio
Pliant is the bamboo;
I am man of earth;
They say that from the bamboo
We had our first birth.
Am I of the body,Or of the green leaf?
Do I have to whisperMy every sin and grief?
If the wind passes by,Must I stoop and try
To measure fully My flexibility?
I might have been the bamboo,
But I will be a man.
Bend me then, O Lord,
Bend me if you can.

FIVE MATH POEMS

by Eileen Tupaz
i'm tired of being a zero vector
i'm tired of being a zero vector
with no direction
no dimension
and no magnitude;
what i need is another element
- but that would be
a contradiction
of my definition
soulmates
we are all of us
nonsingular creatures
whose identities
must be affirmed
before our inverses
can be found

conformity
why must life
be a diagonal matrix?
where every other path
that deviates from the main
is an unacceptable
- zero
 we are born
as identity matrices
[nonzero]
[nonempty]
a subset
of the complexity
that is the universe
until fate hands us a scalar
from the twin ends of infinity
and we grow in magnitude
to become universes
- ourselves

breaking point
a vector
is a scalar
that has been pushed
- too far

Revolt From Hymen

Angela Manalang-Gloria
O to be free at last, to sleep at last
As infants sleep within the womb of rest!
To stir and stirring find no blackness vast
With passion weighted down upon the breast,
To turn the face this way and that and feel
No kisses festering on it like sores,
To be alone at last, broken the seal
That marks the flesh no better than a whore’s!
 Bonsai
Edith Tiempo
All that I love
I fold over once
And once again
And keep in a box
Or a slit in a hollow post
Or in my shoe.
All that I love?
Why, yes, but for the moment-
And for all time, both.
Something that folds and keeps easy,
Son’s note or Dad’s one gaudy tie,
A roto picture of a queen,
A blue Indian shawl, even
A money bill.
It’s utter sublimation,
A feat, this heart’s control
Moment to moment
To scale all love down
To a cupped hand’s size
Till seashells are broken pieces
From God’s own bright teeth,
And life and love are real
Things you can run and
Breathless hand over
To the merest child.

ORDER FOR MASKS

Virginia Moreno

To this harlequinade
I wear black tight and fool’s cap
Billiken*, make me three bright masks
For the three tasks in my life.
Three faces to wear
One after the other
For the three men in my life.
 When my Brother comes
make me one opposite
If he is a devil, a saint
With a staff to his fork
And for his horns, a crown.
I hope for my contrast
To make nil
Our old resemblance to each other
and my twin will walk me out
Without a frown
Pretending I am another.

When my Father comes

Make me one so like
His child once eating his white bread in trance
Philomela* before she was raped. I hope by likeness
To make him believe this is the same kind
The chaste face he made,
And my blind Lear* will walk me out
Without a word
Fearing to peer behind.

If my lover comes,
Yes, when Seducer comes
Make for me the face
That will in color race
The carnival stars
And change in shape
Under his grasping hands.
Make it bloody
When he needs it white
Make it wicked in the dark
Let him find no old mark
Make it stone to his suave touch
This magician will walk me out
Newly loved.
Not knowing why my tantalizing face
Is strangely like the mangled parts of a face
He once wiped out.

Make me three masks.

 Poems: Laughter

by Maningning Miclat

He left me when he could no longer stand the laughter

that I gave him

while he begged me not to keep memories

alive in poems

to hurt myself and make those

who read sad.

I laughed

when he shared

his life with me

while holding him

to make it easier

and maybe

less painful

to live on.Laugh!

I told him, but could not ge this attention

.Laugh! I askedhim, but he left inanger.

And left before he understood

the courage that held my laughter.