My photo
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.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

GROWING


GROWING
Abuela would have joined them in raising
beak-like stalks toward the sky, in praise
of an apothecary rooted among the bramble.
“In garlic we trust,” she would intone while
wrapping crushed garlic moistened by spittle
on our aching little fingers, our battle scars.
Like wild garlic heads rising from untilled
gardens, we raced to grow beyond littleness,
beyond fearful cowering, and found fingers
to point at the blank sky that would have given
us rain on our demand for clouds to break
into torrents drenching parched soil and bodies
of naked lads and lasses tittering in the rain,
their necklaces of garlic bulbs and parts dangling.
—Albert B. Casuga
07-08-11

In the yard, the horde of wild garlic heads have begun to rise from their private ruminations and aim their long beaks together at the sky.---Dave Bonta, The Morning Porch, 07-08-11


No comments: