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ALBERT B. CASUGA, a Philippine-born writer, lives in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, where he continues to write poetry, fiction, and criticism after his retirement from teaching and serving as an elected member of his region's school board. He was nominated to the Mississauga Arts Council Literary Awards in 2007. A graduate of the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas (now University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Literature and English, magna cum laude), he taught English and Literature (Criticism, Theory, and Creative Writing) at the Philippines' De La Salle University and San Beda College. He has authored books of poetry, short stories, literary theory and criticism. He has won awards for his works in Canada, the U.S.A., and the Philippines. His latest work, A Theory of Echoes and Other Poems was published February 2009 by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. His fiction and poetry were published by online literary journals Asia Writes and Coastal Poems recently. He was a Fellow at the 1972 Silliman University Writers Workshop, Philippines. As a journalist, he worked with the United Press International and wrote an art column for the defunct Philippines Herald.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

ONCE UPON A TIME


ONCE UPON A TIME
From the beginning, years/have been love letters/to things that disappear/and remain. --- From “Two Thousand and….” by Hannah Stephenson, The Storialist, o6-28-11 



Once upon a time: is a slumber line if any,
unlike lullabies that now use the F word.* 

Once upon a time: was a trigger to fantasy
about frogs and princes, fairies and trolls. 

“Once upon a time” has yet to be edited
out of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Bellows. 

Once upon a time: that, too, has come back
to all our versions of the incarnated Word. 

Once upon a time the world was simpler
than we know. That was once upon a time. 

But our milestones were once upon a time
marks of how far we have rolled millstones 

farther away from what once upon a time
were the jumping cliffs of self-immolation. 

We will move on, but leave our footprints
where we were happy once upon a time.


---Albert B. Casuga
06-28-11



*Have you come across American actor Samuel Jackson’s reading of “Go the F*** to Sleep! “? Google it. It has broken You Tube hit records. In our time.

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