Post by thepoetslizard on Oct 10, 2008 15:53:50 GMT 2
Barb Natividad plays hockey and majored in English at DePaul University; she also attended an MFA program in Creative Writing in Ohio. She was a former drummer for several Chicago rock bands. Barb, who was born in the Philippines and speaks fluent Tagalog, plays guitar to relax (or to procrastinate).
"Shame"
"Nakaka hiya ka alam
mo ba?" You're an embarrassment
when you show up here dressed in those
torn up and faded shorts, your hair
piled on top of your head like a
pineapple's crown, parading through
my place of work; and I have to
answer my co-workers' question:
"Who's that?" "Who, that? That's my daughter."
It isn't that I'm ashamed of you but,
can't you dress decently to visit me?
Source:
Babaylan, ed. Nick Carbo & Eileen Tabios (aunt lute, 2000)
*
"Juliet's Daughter"
"You're not my child at all," is what she said,
She scowled at me, then hissed, "You're devil's spawn."
She sees the horns protruding from my head:
Her child, conceived a month before she wed,
How ruefully she recollects that dawn
When lark, so cruel, left lovers divided;
Her handsome Romeo has long since gone,
He's middle-aged now, fat--and mows the lawn.
I never turned their water into wine
I never restored sight unto the blind
I never tempted anyone with fruit
I never warbled, never strummed a lute
Nor questioned their ill-fated, star-crossed love;
My mother never saw me as a dove.
Web source:
TPQ Online
tpqonline.org/juliet.html
