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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.

Monday, October 14, 2013

MARIE AMONG THE LEAVES


 
MARIE AMONG THE LEAVES
 

How her strut becomes her, a wee lass on the hill.
Hands in little pockets like grandfathers walk,
she must get to the other side where there’s a wall
she needs to climb over only because it is there.

Toddling among the leaves, she lets out a shriek
like diving seagulls make, taunting the raucous
fishermen to let some catch off their bursting nets,
sharing the joie d’vivre only drunken sailors home
from the seas are full of.  Aiieee… Aieeeeeeeekkkk!

The darkening sky lets out a funnel of fall wind,
roils the crackling leaves blanketing the hillock.
She stumbles on a heap, swims through the mound
of sienna and fallen foliage, but her coy laughter
makes him tremble now, her pensive grandpere:

“Mon dieu, let her laugh, let the pall of transience
pass, that she may be defiant with full laughter
through all the autumns of her life. O, lift her up
whence she falls, cradle her caressingly. Forever.”

---Albert B. Casuga
10-14-13  Mississauga


 

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