The wind is tearing up the banana, poking holes in the spider webs, tugging at my dry hair. All around is at peace. In closed rooms they have paused to breathe my fellow citizens, and I on the grass outspread, my eyes open, see nothing but a slow cautious airplane. Why do I want it to explode? -- translated from Tagalog by Robert Nery
(originally published by Vagabond Press : Poems of Rolando S. Tinio, Jose F. Lacaba & Rio Alma)
-- photo by Nguyễn Man Nhiên