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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, April 5, 2012

WAITING FOR A SHADOW



WAITING FOR A SHADOW


I watch the muted hue/ of a five-o-clock shadow dapple in the window light/ and marvel: what brings you back, persists, so often, despite? ---Luisa A. Igloria


Pain is a truant seeking for its origin,
it jumps off  walls like sundown shadows,
hackle-raising and intimate, seeking balm
where nothing is offered,  penitently quiet
as some persistent window-tapper pleading
to be let in, where there are no doors to open
nor window sills to lie vigil on waiting, hoping
to come back when there is no longer any home
to grow mellow in, nor a place to leave a threadbare
duffle bag in, stained, empty and won’t be filled again:
this shadow-self might be true only because of  his pain.



---Albert B. Casuga
04-04-12



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