By the Half-moon Driveway of the ICM House of Prayer

you can paint this sun-filled scene in viridian

   better yet drown it in a sea of ultramarine

throw in the marked pointedness of pine needles

   & shade the barks of trees with burnt sienna supreme

 

this rosebud here must have the blush of an infant's bottom

   that palm frond there can learn a lesson or two on stillness

as for that poinsettia petal, it wears too much lipstick

   bleed it some more till it yells "Pink!"

 

must the sky remain a cheery cerulean?

   can it not weep a moody indigo?

the twin cypresses cry with their prayerful branches

   can they not honeymoon by the hermitage instead?

 

what do you do when the words are not forthcoming?

   drain your mug of lukewarm coffee,

take twenty determined strides

   & step out into, onto, step on the garden.

 

-- Babeth Lolarga

 

First published in Baguio Calligraphy, edited by Francis C. Macansantos and Luchie B. Maranan (Anvil Publishing, Inc.), 2010.

 

Photos of Baguio by Babeth 

Day in a Life in Baguio

“what if a much of a witch of a wind”
& here e.e. cummings lies
on a bed of iceberg lettuce
laced with dewdrops
coming fresh from la la La Trinidad trading post

& “summer’s lie” is that
concrete pine
where a rosy rotunda
used to stand
a sight for sorest eyes

the truth being
no greater life is lived
than here in highland coffee farms
where armies of ants
are extinguished
where Seattle’s Best folded up,
undistinguished,
& Starbucks continues to rake it in

give me Benguet coffee
or euthanize me!

--Babeth Lolarga

first published in the anthology Baguio Calligraphy , Francis C. Macansantos and Luchie B. Maranan, eds., Anvil Publishing, 2010.

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