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V I I .   E y e   o f   T y p h o o n

P a g e  9

D R E A M   O F   T H E   B A R   G I R L

 E   R   M   I   T  A : 

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The sea is punishing the breakwater

The monsoon lashes at the coconut fronds

Along the Boulevard

Rain beats with its demented keening

The glass panes of Mabini and Del Pilar

Gathering in its currents

Soot grease rubbish slime

Dark blood of the late hour 

Gurgling into the pavement’s maws

 

Night screams in the neon

Hisses and crackles

On the marquees

In the flaking paint of the streetmarkers

The circles of light under the lamps

In the scratchy vinyl of jukeboxes

The scarlet dark behind walls of bars

In the shadows on peeling wallpaper

The frightened vermin scavenging for crumbs

 

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Across dance floors

It flickers and dims like eyelids and mouths

In the glare and stare

Of the mirth and cry

Caught in the sudden echo of light

In the thousand tiny pulses

Of circuits and wires

Quickening at the nerve-endings of fingers

On the strings and frets of electric guitars

 

Ermita! Ermita of our lives!

Mabini and Del Pilar!

Speak your wisdom of water and fire

Upon this insult and altar to our poverty and vice

Dispel this dazzle of glitter and illusion

And let this darkness of our want and delusion

Coruscate with lightning

And crystal vision

In the eye of typhoon 

 

 

Marne Kilates

(c. 1987; Rev. January 1, 2015)

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