Poetry&Stuffby
MARNE KILATES
MARNE
S
KRIPTS
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
from
Antinostalgia & the Tokhang
Rhapsodies
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
Poems 2022
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
From Mga Biyahe, Mga Estasyon
From Journeys, Junctions
(a collection of travel poems)
Capiz-Shell Windows
(Or: Windowpane Oyster )
Windows in Balayan by Conrado A. Bogayong
Nothing can show you the essence
Of translucence but these tiny and
Multiple squares of light in the shuttered
Siesta of our childhood. Embargoed
By Grandmothers for the afternoon nap,
For their own post-prandial peace,
We drowsed into complete oblivion,
Submitting to the imposed shut-eye
No mother or elder sister could violate.
Cavorting was held in abeyance,
Everyone was exhorted with the forefinger
Held close to the lips: Sigh or Shush!
And the house in this interior half-light
Was at peace: Under the somnolent stare
Of capiz-shell one drowsed into complete
​
Oblivion. It was no mystery. The lulling
Magic of katipay* was in its being
“Windowpane oyster”―the slurp or
The yawn glided over the mother-of-pearl―
Each a frame of cured and flattened
Placuna, with the luster and half-glisten
Of a dragonfly wing quivering among
Petals and the filigree of twigs. Such was
Our siesta reverie, our half-waking dreams
Behind windows of capiz, where we were
Pixie and fairy flitting and prancing in a lush
Garden, where the light was always iridescent.
Marne Kilates
6 July 2020; rev. 12 July 2021; 11 November 2021
​
*Bikol term for capiz