three hour GCE O level examination, bandar seri begawan, september before the monsoon.
school hall is so
crammedthat the walls
cry out in
clammy angst.
each tudong/songkok
bearing
pupil
troves
leg-room safety
through
bent-knee anguish,
e,
v
o
b
a
well
while, the arcane fans
stir
in tepid throb,
their own sirocco stew:
dust, mold &
the skeletal stumps
of long-dead
gecko.
eyes gaze glazed,
as
sweat
coagulates
on leaking faces,
and
the slow drip-feed chug
of that niggling clock,
astride the haggard plinth,
lifts its own
rusty hands,
in genuflection
toward
the
airless
sky.
the
listless
staff
slump,
ruined,
all
crave
just
one cloud
might
scrawl
upon
this
relentless
day.
pass or die in tin shui wai
it is a classroom
without any caste.
in s p r e d e a g l e d legions
these starchily-uniformed
pubescents
regurgitate whatever
may have seeped in somehow
their subjugated brains
while
within their vast begrudging
psychographic spates,
they probably
cannot even hear
the brontide brewing;
crenelating
evercloser
to thinning out
their
sha m
pe dan tic
ran ks
hong kong town, 2015
oh, I went down to hong kong town
searching for a feed
yes, I went down to hong kong town
to fill an inner need.
hong kong, you old bastard;
your flabbergasted lips
basting the back alleys
in jisms of sputum,
disabling sophomore solons
garbled in yellow
under colourless sun.
your cctv coders,
scrawny necks craning
from cinereal crannies;
as thickets of taxis
defoliate ring-roads
like locusts on heat.
an omerta of towers
sworn into silence
moans in the background,
ever ready to pounce,
as the spit of your harbour
desiccates daily –
there’s nowhere to run.
yes, I came home from hong kong town
head down on my knees,
oh, I came back from hong kong town
a chastened man indeed.
a chastened man, indeed.
afternoon traders, santo tomas
the top windows wink
in fissured feint,
the aloof front door
feigns a faint faux
smile
&
the dense
cement
walls
don’t even
dare
emote
at all:
- a conspiracy of sorts.
o u t s i d e
o n t h e
narrow rutted road
the haphazard motley
co
syn pa
tes:
an epileptic fit
aftermath of some
a la carte ejaculation
&
just as doomed to miss
their targets,
behind the jailbarred glass.
pampanga back lot
the sun is a liar.
he swindles the shrubbery
each
and
every day,
as they g y r a t e that
way
& this,
scalded by his scorches.
he merely sneers
& glares;
some times
just sulks; skulks
behind
the nearest nimbus.
theirs’ is NO choice.
they thirst for
some sort of
salvation.
s t r e t c h & s t r a i n
y e a r n i n g l y,
before
this final decollate
i
n
t
o
desuetude.
morong beach barrio
there’s not much left;
a vaudeville show
bereft of stage;
a series of shells
disdaining roofs
pinioned at the nub
by the
one
remaining
sari sari store
that refused to die
&
a trick tricyclist
or three
who have
nowhere else
to snooze.
up there
while ^
the village idiot sun
just can’t take the hint,
&
preys fulsome
on this fuselage,
this butchered carcass
of a town,
marooned
near
the
lagoon.
sari sari – small family store [Tagalog]
Bio
Vaughan Rapatahana's 2016 collection of poems, Atonement, published by University of Santo Tomas Press, has been nominated for a National Book Award in the Philippines.
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