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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Three Poems by Denver Ejem Torres

Three Poems by Denver Ejem Torres

The River Fish in Mongolia Have Haloes

The river fish in Mongolia have haloes.
They fly freely in that water without fear.

In India, the cows too, have haloes. But these
animals in pedestal, untouchables,

not in India's Caste System sense, made me think
of the fish at Gensan. Do we have this type

of reverence or respect here? Then, I look
at a stray street dog. In its eyes, the answer,

a maudlin man drunk with his lust of steamy
azucena. When I was a child, I wished

I did not have a Dad who owned many belts
But I do not want to recall anymore,

my desire to belong somewhere else. Like the
dog, I have learned to live with this maudlin man.

Nomenclature

The poet attempts always to name all that arrives and
departs; a nomenclature of sort is poetry therefore.

Most, if not at all times we only discover that we have forgotten
the name of a person, place or thing when we bump into them again,

either in memory or down the road. And likely we get a hectic heart beat
and because we are no-name-a-phobic we panic.

Then we grope, grope and grope in the broad daylight of memory
but only to discover that it was not the light who hid their names.

But the poet reaches for the pen and starts naming them all,
and since the poet is easily tired and bored, he renames them all instead.

(After TALA MUNDI)

Why Armstrong Went to the Moon

Whenever I look
at the Moon's face
I see a scar
Resembling
a human foot.

Everytime
this happens, I think
of that whisper
my childhood crush
made to our classmate's
ear and all the other
things I will not
ever know.

And I look at
the Moon some more
and think of the reason
why Armstrong had
to go there.

And I am certain
that it is not the case
of the moth and
the flame.

It wasn't its
luminescence that
led him….

Author's Bio: Denver Ejem Torres has a Bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature Studies from Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan and is a Fellow for Poetry at several national writers workshops. As a bilingual poet, he writes in his mother tongue, Visayan and English. He has appeared or is forthcoming in The Asia Writes Project, Red River Review (USA), Bisaya Magasin (Manila Bulletin) and 18th INWW Proceedings. Recently, .MOV International Film, Music, & Literature Festival included his poetry in Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry. His interview on the process of writing, with Roger B. Rueda will be featured in 8finity Magazine this March 2012. He is presently with WIPRO LTD.

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