Contributor: Jun Lit

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Here come the rains again –
with clouds of million emotions
pouring ceaseless streams
of interwoven musings
germinating seeds of void feelings,
like unholy weeds
you straddled upon, or deeds
forgotten in one remote corner -
good as they really were
but not a single soul did bother
to thank, or at least,
remember.

Sometimes I wish I were one poem –
at least one may, on one day, or one morn
read or declaim, remembering a line or two . . .
the poet who wrote it will long be gone
but a verse maybe recited or pass review.

Drips of tasteless wine from rusting roofs
Color the shadows down the wounded hooves
Intoxicating captive audiences
with illusory mugs of rancid ale
make-believe liquors now stale,
stark when faced with truthful pilsen pale.

Even the sweetest of ancient brews
turns sour just like cider of uncured juice.
People cherish sangrias and Bloody Maries
as freshly mixed cocktails, not as diluted whiskeys,
forgetting that once in the brutal reign of winter
within one’s freezing soul, the maimed ember
of a Shakespearean line, kept the mind sober,
long enough to survive the loveless glacier.

But I’m here in the midst of the tropics
And on more serious thought, I must feel sick
that winters like autumns become empty rhetoric
when the Sun Queen imposes its wish
to rule the plains, the peaks, the streams
and even when hiding in slumber it seems.
The clouds and winds just obey its whims.
Its warm royal hands energize
as raindrops turn to double-edged knives
that blessings maybe sprinkled here,
but a destroyer’s wrath sways on the other side

And so after a few moments of respite
Here come the rains again –
pouring harder, torrentially relentless,
holding me hostage
but freeing the sigh, hiding the frown
setting serious thoughts up
but pulling mixed emotions down
cheering the chilling inside
but calming the restless mind
happy and contemplative
ah, like poles pulling apart
yet . . .
ah still . . .
united at heart.


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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.