Post by thepoetslizard on Oct 10, 2008 15:52:06 GMT 2
Bing Caballero was born in Washington DC in 1954, and raised in Manila with the backstreets of Cubao as her playground, and the cogon fields of Annapolis Street her meditations ground, before they all became a megamall. As an actress, she has appeared with Bibi Anderson in Vilgot Sjoman's "I Am Blushing," and played other roles in Mnila cinema. Her life as the wife of the late Finnish Ambassador Ilkka Vilho Ruso led her to write many poems about travel. She has lived in New York, Helsinki, Kuala LUmpur, San Francisco, and Manila.
"Manila Traffic on Automatic"
I regarded the flag today
a rather faded one I must say
by some coincidence it happened to be
in front of a branch of the PNB.
The late monsoon wind allowed a graceful flutter
bringing to my mind the matter
of hope.
A cab cut in front of me though
and I missed the light.
*
"Smoothing OUt the Rough Edges on a Honeymoon"
Suddenly as though in a bad dream
the wind blew over the flatness
Amsterdam
and from my window the uniform trees
bent willingly to the threatening breeze
and the sky was a dull shade of blue
and I felt my man close by
somewhere
he was
reading perhaps
scheming perhaps
he was
suddenly part of something
he had a winter
dim and dark as I hear
a history
a fear
and stories of tears over telephones.
I touched him.
He was close
but (that word always interrupts)
A storm is brewing
I can see
the heart is checked
each skip is correct
and the horizon is a luminous wall
where the wind bounces in howls
of dread
and the night falls upon me
without regret.
*
Source:
A Habit of Shores, ed. Gemino H. Abad, UP Press, 1999