1

At the Diario de Manila, Teodoro the cajista

Was always missing the majuscule K, and replacing it

 

From the box of the newly imported fonts from Italy.

It was the newest version from the cast of Señor Bodoni.

 

Which was strange since the letter seldom occurred

In the lengua de los colonizadores, except when the words

 

Were borrowed from the Greeks. We needed it

For the kilos of sugar, kilometraje or kimono.

 

We needed it for the changing orthography

Of the Tagalog articles of Don Isabelo de los Reyes.

 

But it was getting worse. Language was changing

Itself outside the printeria. A new language

 

Was coming out of mouths of both Indio and

Ilustrado, a language spoken and understood

 

All over the islands. And ideas subversive

And filibustero were being unloaded from the barcos,

 

Rigged merchant ships, privateers and schooners

From Cuba and Mexico, the whole Archipelago, and

 

Whole sections of type cases, crates of other typefaces

Were vanishing during the two-and-a-half hour siestas.