Lesson 1

The only thing you need to be happy is to be loved.
Not by an idea — or shelves of them
Or by a belief — or a set of them
Not by a lifestyle
And certainly not by a room full of thingamajigs
But by a person of flesh and blood — a piece of meat with a [...]

I Miss You

This is my life before we got together. I don’t know it anymore. Thinking back to how I got here in the office from the moment I struggled to get off the sheets at home, I can’t imagine how I lived before I met her. I must have been a zombie or a piece of [...]

We’re Policemen

We’re policemen.
We ride our patrol cars and hunt the streets for those slimy, stealthy, pesky crooks who break our laws — the laws we hold dear. They’re everywhere, these lawless bastards, searching for holes, laying out evil clever strategies so they can get what they want. They’re in every dark, dirty corner, forever waylaying their [...]

Generally and Generically

She says that it’s too general and I know that it’s too generic but when everything gets too messed up, all I can tell her is that I love her very, very much.
Chemae and I have been together for a year — more than a year. If anybody’s wondering how did that year go, all [...]

A Song In My Head I Wish Interpol Would Play

Bed Bugby Interpol*EverytimeIt gets meEverytime
EverytimeIt gets meEverytime
Now I think about a lot and I do a lot of actsBut I really can’t know what goes on in thisShowCause it
Gets
Me
Everytime.Yes, it gets meEverytime
You’re over there, I’m underneath, it’s incompleteI’m completelySillySillySilly.
So what is worse? Go get a nurseAnd rub some salt against these woundsTo—
Yeah, yeah, yeah, [...]

Palaisipan

 
Lumulukso, lumulubog, lumalaktawMasundan langHinuhulaan, inaabangan, kinakabahanKumalma langTinatanya, pinipiga ang simpatyaLumingon lamangHinaharap, hinahabol, hinang-hinaUmaga lamang,Niyakap pa, ilang oras, bastusan naUlong kinalawangNawiwindang, nagba-blangko, nagniningasHindi mabilangMga nasasayang, kabi-kabilaang mga kapraninganLubus-lubusangSinasagad, binababad, binibiladSa init ng pulangBumabakat, walang puknat, kumakalatNangangati nangGumapang, mabuwang, tumiwalagIsipang tigangSumusuka, sumusuko, sumisiwalatMga damdamingNauudyok, nabubulok sa sinasapitAyoko nangLumulundag, nagbabasag, humihiyaw‘Di mapigilangMagnilay-nilay, magbantay-bantay, baka mauhawNaniniwalangMay oras [...]

Beyond the White Wall

It starts slowly and we know we’re gonna be
Savages
Tonight.
I drink
The thousand wells of your mouth;
You’ll be slithering in me — slippery, sucking, suddenly biting,
Marking me with bright red blood,
Sending me into convulsions. Teeth gnashing, I try painfully
Not to tear the soft flesh
Off
your damp lips.
Oh, I’ll swallow you for keeps
Stick every strand of my hair into [...]

Death Comes to Us on a Friday

Friday is the most unusual of all the days of the week. It is the penultimate day before the weekend. Everything ends on a Friday: the rush, the frustrations, the expectations, the wickedness of work. They end, at least temporarily, on a Friday.
Friday is neither part of the work week nor the weekend. It is [...]

Commercial Break

We curse as the scene’s cut off,
The actors hands in the air,
Mouths gaping open.
Music, silence, a split second transition
To something alien.
We’re not ready for it,
Our hearts dangling from our throats,
About to fall due to gravity.
But there’s no time left
Before the stupid jingles fill every corner
Of the room. Patience bursts
At the intruder that mutilated the story.
We [...]

Love in the Office and the Duality of Modernity

I am in favor of office romances, you know, love between fellow employees.
Now, that statement is almost kind of taboo in this capitalist world frantic with competition and productivity issues. For me, however, office romances are like those unexplored theories regarding human feelings and their role and place in the modern world. It’s like that [...]