Miracle in Katipunan Avenue

a dead snail
squashed by shoe
starts to pray for Karma
and Godzilla


Faith Manifest(o)

I will never die on the cross
or under a tank or sprawled
on a tarmac. I will never make peace

with the heaviness in my hands
and the enemy that dies from it.
I will never chant the name of a country

like an open prayer. I will never sing
about anything more than my small pain.
I will never see the world in its entirety.

I will never take aliens to my leader and
they will never take me to theirs. I will never
be torn by the jaws of a tyrannosaurus rex.

I will never tire of free beer and Saturday
nights and jeepney rides through the squalor.
I will never pull my penis out from a beautiful

woman and exclaim Oh! I will never be Scarlet
Johansson nor would I wish to be except
when she's singing karaoke with Bill Murray.

I will never meet God although I have rehearsed
my lines. I will never be a cockroach with wings
built to outlast an atomic bomb at least until

the next life.

The Plan

I will pack the few things I have
earned through living and go to X.

I will hail a taxi and brave
Manila traffic. I will make it

in time for my flight. The driver
will not mutter under his breath

when I give him the exact fare.
I will get a window seat, stare

at the clouds, and wonder idly
about the sad work of water,

hauling itself off the earth.
I will have time to wonder.

My boss will not be there to look
through the glass of his office.

I will look below and wave goodbye
to nothing. I will sleep for hours.

I will wake up to a new smell
as the plane touches down

on the island whose natives,
with skin browner than mine,

will welcome me with a dance
to music I will not understand.

I will sit on the sand and watch
the rain crashing into the sea.

I will never leave.
I will never leave.