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.

Monday, August 19, 2013

DESERT ANGELUS

 
DESERT ANGELUS

1. Prayer

Wish this upon that wasted waif
reaching for a cob of corn on a cold
night among the lean-to shelters.
 
Pray for this as hard as you can
before the scorching desert claims
his little body back among debris
 
of sticks, stones, and bones dimly lit
by fluttering fire from stoked ember,
frying the flies gleaned from holes
 
hiding them in the crannies of boxes
left by a howling army of thieves
absconding with the relief supply.

2. Biscuit in the Sky
 
A border guard sips freshly brewed
coffee from his tin cup, cocks his
rifle at its ready-to-fire 45-degree,
 
sneers at the child’s shaking body
in the arms of a tremblingly bony
hand of its mother begging for tea
 
or a tad of coffee, a balm for a cold
night at the gobi, where a half-moon
floats like a half-eaten biscuit in the sky.

---Albert B. Casuga
 


 

 

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