LITERARY JOURNAL

ALLEGIANCE   It takes patience to live with an octogenarian— would have been simpler to drop her at Fairway Gardens or Coronation Lodge, let her see out her days playing bowls, watching matinees, bingo on Tuesdays.   But our Filipino roots would not allow it— our customs, chromosomes, deoxyribonucleic acid;…

singing teacher   the red graphic Marvel tee over khakis, black rimmed  glasses strike your pale face. the scuffs on the Nike from K Rd  footpaths match those pen marks in the palm of your heavy hand. the stench of that Australian  shepherd that nips at my young knees  and…

Gaucho    Despite the ‘Deacon Blues’ to spite                           his wife inland, Roman jams                                 with Captain Morgan & a magnet                                           bottled on his lips. He puckers at the casts                          of spray-tanners, clementine skin peelers              & their sober kids through his incantation —     I knew ya when you were this tall —…