—————-

Apologia to the angry mob of futureless youths

We are the immortal goodbyes the  gods said to each other

Aeons ago at the gloaming hours of broken covenants

Every word is now a forging of newfound courage, or hope

Behind gray clouds that quiver on the breast of crestfallen dew

Do not bind us now to the oaths of our failed bloodlines

We may fail yet again with tired maxims, axioms hiding

In the palimpsest of hardworking mediocre metaphors

—————–

At a bullet train station in Fujian

Ten years ago around this time of year 

The weather was biting like a lover gone bitter

The fellow Chinese teacher said something about winter wind in China

Which can typically lick human faces off with frost bite

That there’s no way to know pain from shame 

Because the cold is an anaesthesia

So we could be walking around like zombies 

With nice-smelling coiffed hair

Empty eye sockets staring back at people

I didn’t know if he was only trying to shock or humor

A newcomer with excess baggage to boot.

When the train arrived, the wind howled harder

Stepping inside I caught myself in the glass door

Not a zombie yet, whatsoever, thank God

Just a Bukowskian traveler with frozen lake eyes

Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr., is a native of Siquijor Island in Central Visayas, Philippines. He was last based in Fujian, China as a second-language teacher after over a decade stint as a Corporate Communications Officer in the Middle East. Some forthcoming online and in print, most of his poems and stories have been published by literary magazines and journals, including The Philippines Graphic, The Philippine Free Press, The Philippine Star, and the Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints Vol. 53 , among others. He has published three poetry books since 2010. and currently Editor-At-Large for The Syzygy Poetry Journal.