Contributor: Jun Lit

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Like a portrait of the dodo lonely
in one landscape by Savery,
or a royal castle, grandiose
in distant clouds of imaginary repose,
a demanding presence, you were there,
viewed from across the road gutter,
of a highway now made uncaringly busier
by the rushing waters of material progress
in the village of my childhood bliss.
in the Old City of my cherished memories.

the house is now gone, brushed away from the view,
the once-cherished home erased like sparrows that flew
from the maps of trails made by doodle bugs
as they crawled backward to their pits
made by tossing away dusty bits.
Once upon a time, it was there . . .
Once upon a time, a family lived there.
All that remains is a picture, frozen in time somewhere.

To see such mementoes brings smiles and tears,
flashbacks of joys as real as struggles and fears.
It’s just that some unexplained silence conquers my ears . . .
For the decades past seem to say -
youth is as ephemeral as the flowers of May
And childhood, albeit be precious as it may
was a just one quick, one volatile day.


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Jun Lit (Ireneo L. Lit, Jr.) teaches biology and studies insects at the University of the Philippines Los Baños and writes poems about nature, people, and society.