Lost Things

by Arvin Mangohig

One day you may take the most luminous thing

In your life and lose it halfway between home and destination.
To go back would feel wrong.
To arrive without it means defeat.

Out in the world where no one knows your name,

That one thing is the only one that can save you.
It is the answer that burns the souled-out questions of darkness,
Both the pass and password to salvation.

So no one can ask why you never came home

And never arrived, you stayed where you lost it.
In that imagine circumference of its light, you chose
To live your life, burning yourself out, you luminous thing.
A Dozen Pair of Shoes (an excerpt)
by Luis P. Gatmaitan M.D.

My father was a shoemaker. Shoes made by him were really famous in

town. A lot of people would come to us to have their shoes made. From
what we heard, my father’s shoes were so much better than the shoes
made in Marikina. They were durable, the workmanship was really
excellent, and their designs, truly creative!

“Where on earth do you get your ideas for those styles? They’re sooo
pretty!”
“Looks like the muse of shoes and soles comes and visits you…”
“You must have magic in your hands!”
With all these praises, my Tatay would only half smile. He was a quiet
man. He rarely ever spoke.

I grew up amidst all the many shoes my father made. My friends and
classmates often wished they were in my shoes. They said I was lucky to
have a shoemaker for a father. Why, I always had a new pair for every
occasion – school opening, Christmas, my birthday, or when I was
awarded class honors in school! My Tatay even made me extra pairs of
shoes from left-over leather and fabric. “I wish I were you, Karina. You
always have new shoes. Me? I get hand-me-downs from my ate. I only
wear the shoes that don’t fit her anymore,” complained one of my
classmates.
I am a Filipino (an excerpt)
by Carlos P. Romulo

I am a Filipino - inheritor of a glorious past,hostage to the uncertain

future. As such I must prove equal to a two-fold task- the task of
meeting my responsibility to the past, and the task of performing my
obligation to the future. I sprung from a hardy race - child of many
generations removed of ancient Malayan pioneers. Across the
centuries, the memory comes rushing back to me: of brown-skinned
men putting out to sea in ships that were as frail as their hearts were
stout. Over the sea I see them come, borne upon the billowing wave
and the whistling wind, carried upon the mighty swell of hope- hope in
the free abundance of new land that was to be their home and their
children’s forever.

This is the land they sought and found. Every inch of shore that their
eyes first set upon, every hill and mountain that beckoned to them with
a green and purple invitation, every mile of rolling plain that their view
encompassed, every river and lake that promise a plentiful living and
the fruitfulness of commerce, is a hollowed spot to me.

By the strength of their hearts and hands, by every right of law, human
and divine, this land and all the appurtenances thereof - the black and
fertile soil, the seas and lakes and rivers teeming with fish, the forests
with their inexhaustible wealth in wild life and timber, the mountains
with their bowels swollen with minerals - the whole of this rich and
happy land has been, for centuries without number, the land of my
fathers. This land I received in trust from them and in trust will pass it
to my children, and so on until the world no more.
20 Questions (an excerpt)
by Juan Ekis

MGA TAUHAN

Jigs: Fresh grad. Kabarkada ni Yumi. Magtatrabaho bilang researcher sa

isang financial
firm.

Yumi: Commercial Model. Kabarkada ni Jigs. 2 years ahead kay Jigs.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
TAGPO

Gabi. Sa isang kwarto ng isang beach resort. Naglalatag ng kumot si Jigs

sa sahig habang
inaayos ni Yumi ang kanyang higaan.

YUMI: Sige na, Jigs. Huwag ka nang magpaka-gentle man. Naaawa ako
sa'yo e. Tabi na
tayo sa kama.

JIGS: Hindi, okay lang ako dito.

YUMI: Huwag ka nang maarte. As if naman re-rapin kita no. Malaki

naman itong kama e.
Hatiin na lang natin sa gitna.

JIGS Sure ka?

YUMI Hindi mo naman siguro ako mamanyakin no?