maximine and minerva’s owl

sabi nya, “ganyan ang pag-ibig ko sa iyo parang celtic knot walang umpisa walang katapusan”. maizyatasyanungarawnayonperogalingtalagasapusoyungmgasalita.

tinanong daw nya sa binilhan nyang manong na gumagawa nito kung may religious or filosofikal signifikans ba sa celts yung knot, wala naman daw. marahil daw ay para dekorasyon lang o desenyo na pwedeng ikabit sa gustong pagkabitan.  pero nagustuhan nya kaya nya binili. nagustuhan nya dahil naisip nya ako at gusto nyang ibigay sa akin. at dahil nung tingnan nya yung knot, naisip nya yung konsepto ng: ‘pag-ibig na basta nanjan lang, walang umpisa at walang tapos kundi patuloy lang sa pag-ikot kahit buhol-buhol’.  

celtic knot

 year 2005 ng bilhin nya ito sa scotland. ang akala ko ay naiwala ko at may isang taon ko ring hinahanap. maloka-loka ako sa kahahanap at lahat na lang ng bulsa ng jackets, coats, pantalon ay binaligtad ko na, di ko pa rin makita. naalala ko na huling isinuot ko ito nung huling naglaro ako ng tennis nung abril 2006, tinanggal ko dahil istorbo at sumasabit sa kwelyo ng t-shirt ko.

kanina naisipan kong mag-walling dahil maganda ang araw, pagbukas ko ng zipper ng case ng raketa andun pala sya. paano kaya napunta yon don? ang alam ko, nilagay ko sya sa bulsa ng tennis jacket ko. hmmmnnn…. nata-twiglight zone nanaman yata ako ah. 

birthday ni cacofonix

       22 years old na sya.

An Eel Griller

“Welcome,” he says and pours grainy brown liquid

into a small earless cup - barley tea scalding hot. 

There’s a place for everything in his grilled eel shop;

dried gourds centuries old carefully lined atop 

a dark hard wood shelf slightly dilapidated.

Old bamboo pipes smoothed and polished - used to trap the prey

- on the wall suspended by loops of thin ropes. 

A bushido armor by the door. 

Being the only patron at an odd hour of day, 

he sits beside me and tells his tale

while I chew on the fish,

priapic rubbery- like creature sweet and vindictive. 

His great-grandfather served grilled eels to two generations of emperors.

Samurais and spies rejuvenated after a night of battle out and in

for it is believed that the fish has power to restore lost energy,

it invigorates weakened soul.

His shop has been on the same spot ever since 

 and has withstood the tests of time.

Now men in business suits want to buy him out

and build a store  for cell phones and gadgets and robots

 in the shape of cats and dogs and whatever they fancy. 

And why would they fancy his legacy?   

………………………………………………………….

I finished my meal and declined another pour of sweet tea and lamentation.

The sun orangey red.

A fellow traveller on my left,

the Edo river, beckons.

  50 years ago

From left: Nyoyak, Cacof, Daday, and Atinna (FC photo: with aling Pining)

PROFILES:

Cacof - Math major, curly hair, always late, laging wala sa sarili, always suspects people are out to get her, make-up artist wannabe,talented gown designer, and frustrated singer; secret and unrequited love: Boklazo.

Daday - Math major, reads and speaks chinese, frustrated singer, talks at the rate of 1000 words per minute, gadget freak, keeps heaps of folded papers in her bag (di namin alam kung ano talaga yung mga papel na yon, to this day it’s still a mystery), fast walker,always late, too; secret and unrequited love: Scabbypogi.

Atinna - Linguistics major, laging painosente effect, stalker (of nerdy professors), notorious for giving people funny (and cute) monikers, advocate of Robinhood Principle (rob the evil rich and give to the poor); unrequited love: Tarmynoo.

Nyoyak - Math major, killer rack (hehehe), studious, babyface, mahilig sa isne (pinaghalong binusang mais at mane); unrequited love: an imaginary boy from the Physics department.

2 1/2 years ago (Boracay)

applying for a tourist visa and getting interviewed by those snooty boogers is such a breeze even for a marginalized person like myself  if you can prove to them that you have two things on you:  you have ample deposit in your bank account which i don’t, by the way, so don’t get me all wrong, i only fooled them with my board game monies, to assure them that you don’t intend to become an illegal toilet-scrubber in their country who dodge paying their government taxes because you’re undocumented and paid with peanuts below- minimum wage, and, you are not a potential suicide bomber. bastard white supremacists! hehehehe pls. don’t get me wrong.   my pollen allergy is so severe that sometimes i just want to bang my head on the wall. i go out of the house looking like a suicide bomber bank robber with my aviator eyeglasses, baseball cap and  surgical mask on. i don’t like spring very much. spring reminds me of death and pain. 

- love tearing hearts aching relationships going down draining friends divorcing pollen allergy attacking me migraining test papers piling leather seats nauseating my stomach churning i’m vomiting (SIC) -

goodbye to hello kitty (sanrio) undies. i’ve decided to finally use my collection of slutty sexy underwear starting today, i don’t just lay them on the carpet one by one to look at no more (sic) i’m going to wear them and put them to use from now on. thanks to warrick.

“there is something disheartening about a woman’s tattered drawers”

                     - Warrick, CSI LV (while testing a female suspect’s underpants for DNA) 

Halcyon is my current favorite blogger; reading his entries feels like i’m being ”in” it. it feels like i’m being in a time travel to the post-war and 1960s (Philippines) Manila. it feels like i’m being one of the characters of his story yet a total outsider who only watches from one little corner completely unnoticed. i can’t eloquently explain it, you have to try it to feel the nostalgia with a sepia ambience that he effectively and hearteningly depicts - his recollections and reminiscences.

maybe it’s the pollen allergy but i suspect my house is haunted, by good ghosts/good energy, though. I keep seeing sparkly things that fly in mid air inside the house. and it’s been happening quite frequently lately. yesterday i opened my closet to get a hat when suddenly there was this shiny little thing that looked like a piece of aluminum foil the size of a baseball that bounced its way out and disappeared into the thin air. tuninuninuninuninuninuni (insert twaylayt zown music here).  i’m not not kidding.     

i went to the ballet the other day and spent on it the entirety of my lunch money for this month. i’m penniless, i’m going to have to eat nothing but plain rice and a pickled plum for lunch starting today.  i’ll go bang my head on the wall now.