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From the New Book

It is August 1896 and the printing floor of the Diario de Manila is a hive of activity. But the K letters of the font Bodoni keep getting lost. When the Katipunan is discovered the Diario is shuttered by the colonial authorities. But a secret Minerva press starts to spin in the city of Nueva Caceres in the south. Not long after, 15 Bikolanos are executed at the Luneta or die of torture in prison or in exile. So the Revolution arrives in the Peninsula in a printing press putting out catechisms and pamphlet novenas. Thus unfolds a story of memory, language, and freedom in Minerva, the feature poem of my new collection, The Memory Machine.

Cajista1.jpg

The Memory Machine

(A Cajista's Tale in Eleven Parts)

 

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M  I  N  E  R  V  A

 

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Cecilio Press, Naga City

for Kristian Sendon Cordero

Prelude

 

 

Ungainly arachnid, tender-named machine

Etruscan Child of Mainz, incarnated metal

Bone and ink on a nondescript riverbank

In Naga City, clambering all over itself

Flywheel platen ink roller paper sheets pedal

 

Clattering clanging stamping thudding in place

Clickety-clacking spider spinning weaving

Wisps of words threads of rumor meshes

Of news fishnets of notice forms certificates

Flywheel platen ink roller paper sheets pedal

 

Cajista in camiseta feeding retrieving sheets

His arms and sinews meshing with the spinning

Machine slapping swinging in situ without rest

Huffing and puffing with the whistling and hissing

Flywheel platen ink roller paper sheets pedal

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He has merged with machine building up

Sheafs of births deaths weddings disease

Announcement advertisements prescriptions

Cancellations purchases foreclosures receipts

Flywheel platen ink roller paper sheets pedal

 

Separations avowals call cards revolutions

Pamphlets codes machinations invitations

Brochures tickets conduction passes between

Arrivals Destinations Abandonments Embarkations

Flywheel platen ink roller paper sheets pedal

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Ungainly arachnid, tender-named machine

Weaving spinning braiding plaiting looping

Mother Memory Engraver of Memory

Winding & Unwinding Inscriber of Fate & History

Flywheel platen ink roller paper sheets pedal

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