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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.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

DON'T OPEN WINDOWS HERE!



NO ONE OPENS WINDOWS HERE

Something, somehow, has gone away
from a place we call home: windows,
doors to open to collect homing kin
at sundown, like perching birdlings,
have more bolts added, some boarded
up, children hectored into staying away
from doors. Keep those doors shut!
Some n—hs (racial epithet) have guns
blazing. It does not take much these days.
It does not even take a country’s revolt
to crack those pistols of thieving thugs;
here, they might as well be toothbrushes.
So, stay indoors, lock your doors, you
don’t have to plead like Khaddafi: Don’t!
No, don’t even think about Occupy! Don’t!


--- Albert B. Casuga
10-24-11

Reports are mixed— Drug bust, car chase; one caught, one still on the loose; or all of them now in jail. Your wild agitation diminishes, but never really the fear; and the sorrow as well for a world where no one opens windows to let in the night air anymore.--- Luisa A. Igloria on a home invasion near her home in Norfolk, Virginia, posted in Via Negativa, 10-23-11


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