Siftings
Adieu
As of this writing, I am on my way to the US with my apo to spend Christmas with my daughter and to beat the deadline of my apo's green card expiry. It's going to be a cold Christmas season, literally, but hopefully warmed by Thanksgiving Turkey dinner this end of November and Christmas cheer and the new year's blast in December.
Still, there's nothing like a Pinoy Christmas: parol, streetlights in endless chains across gardens and parks, misa de Aguinaldo and media noche. Sapin-sapin sweetmeats, puto bumbong along with Purefoods and Chinese Ham. Gifts from ninongs and ninangs and bamboo canons booming to the squeak of horns and the sparks of watusi and the deafening blasts of superlolo's and bursts of Roman candles lighting up the Philippine skies.
Wala pa ko gani kahalin, na hidlaw na ako sang aton-aton gid iya nga pag-selebrar sang Pagkatao ni Jesus kag sang Bag-ong Tuig!
But this is at it should be. People move on, move away, move back, remove themselves from a scene. Hopefully to make a comeback. As I promised Fred and Joseph and Celia and the rest of the cast of "Iloilo Sarswela: Padayon ang Istorya" which is slated to join the Zarzuela Festival in UP Diliman in February 2009. Tani madayon. Harinawa, matuloy.
In the meantime, let me reprint a poem of mine, not so much to fill up space here but to unload my pain at going away which is making my heart heavy. This is addressed to a lover, of course, and the persona is not necessarily me. But I want you, dear Readers, to imagine yourselves saying goodbye to a Lover, out of duty but going back to him/her, through the memory of your mutual Love and Passion which nothing can destroy.
Adieu, Hello
Adieu, my lover and my friend, adieu;
Undermanding confidante of my confused hours,
Adieu to all that you have striven
To instill in me
Of love and passion's claim
But we have long foreseen the mark
Of Time's long lean finger
On its luminous face,
When desire would no longer
Creep beside me on the restless bed,
To tumble pillows and fumble
With urgent fingers
For doomed lotus-flowers.
We have had our moments circling the sky,
Bending to summer winds
In the locked embrace of trees;
Skimming the ocean foam.
We plied the fragrant hours
Dipping oars in a timeless void
Till lotus nights shriveled
Under the world's grim gaze.
Adieu ---
But this does not prelude
The grieving of dawn;
When the sun peeps up
Over horizons flushed in sleep,
The memory of cool hands cupping
My breasts so softly
Will flood the warmth along my veins
And carry me, pulsing,
Back into the haven of your arms.