Wednesday, October 12

Saturday, October 8

for Em Thoebe

It ain’t no joke wut I go through every day juz to see Em. Here are some facts in those two hours.

1. It takes 3 rides: 2 rock-a-bye jeep and 1 backslap bus -“rock-a-bye” coz I’ve never ridden a jeep witout bein’ shook @least a few thousand times and jeepney rides alwez make me sleepy [prolly tha very reason why babies are rock’d to sleep]; and “backslap” coz tha short ride I take from Boni to Guadalupe on wooden-seated buses causes passengers’ backs to collide wit them hard wooden back’d seats when tha bus suddenly lurches forward [now, who’d fall asleep wit that?]
2. Tha Boni Kaliwa jeep takes longer than tha Boni Derecho jeep.
3. On tha left side of tha Kalentong street, a cerebral palsic boy about 8 years of age can be found simultaneously smoothin’ out his hair and makin’ faces while facin’ tha streets as if in front of an imaginary mirror.
4. Tha more I walk, tha more I wanna sleep. I walk from ma place to where tha Boni jeeps pass, from where it parks out to where buses pass, up tha double-staired overpass and down & then half a block, and finally from tha tent, git off, say hello to a string of resto’s, check ma reflection @ tha last mirror-walled one, cross a li’l puddle of mud that never disappears regardless of tha weather, before finally meeting Em. [Once in tha middle of stairclimbing, I stopp’d and tried to teleport self to Em. Dden work.:c]

*Shoe fatalities & casualties: ma sneaks whose back strap had snapp’d, ma pointy black mule who divorc’d its heel, and mum’s sandals whose strap came unglued twice, plus cuts & scratches on tha othr survivors.