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.