Contributor: April Mae M. Berza

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Imprisoning the alphabet inside my lips
Stills my mind from stealing your divinest image
To tranquilize my desire, my silent heart weeps
In oblivion, its prison cell is a sad cage;
Litanies of sshhh waking my ticking heartbeat,
Lulling already when the roaring thunder clapped
Like a dictator with feet pounding, on his seat,
Ordering, for lovers are servants not to stop,
Vainly trying to surrender to the whisper
Etherized on the ears to invent lexicons
Ere the simulacrum of words starts to slumber
Gently to shape meanings as the passion dawns;
As my heart is freed, silence is then locked inside
Now fear is hushed as I walk the aisle as your bride.


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April Mae M. Berza is the author of Confession ng isang Bob Ong fan (Flipside, 2014). Her poems appeared in Calliope, Contemporary Verse 2, Poetica, Maganda, Belleville Park Pages, The Manila Times and elsewhere. She lives in Taguig, Philippines.