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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.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

THANATOPSIS




THANATOPSIS



1.
Only the good die young. Beauty is skin-deep.
Nothing lasts forever
. Who arrogated wisdom
to make these stick? That mottled-wing moth
flops like fish fallen from clouds, and perishes
in a quick quiver on the rough-hewn porch.
 

It is beautiful even in death. Gusts broke its
wings before it could alight on a lit window.
Would it had burned in the tempting blaze
of a flame, and made for a brighter lamp!
 

Its brief flight might have meant darkness
would have lost to light, and walls moved
with lovers watching their shadows merge.


2.
A hardy mosquito dives kamikaze-like on
denim pants, attempts a quixotic thrust,
and gets upended with a broken sting, its
hindmost legs shaking in rigor mortis.
 

It is ugly in death. It had just been hatched.
Starkly enough, it dies while mooching a drink.


—Albert B. Casuga
09-09-11



Prompt: A mottle-winged moth flops like a fish across the floor. A mosquito tries to drill through denim, her hind-most legs like levers going up. --- Dave Bonta, The Morning Porch. 09-09-11


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