POEMS FOR TWO WOMEN: SUNDOWN TALES AND CANDLES

TWO WOMEN : SUNDOWN TALES AND CANDLES*

SUNDOWN TALES

 

For Abuela Dora (Sra. Dona Teodora Flores Casuga+)

 

 

All, all of those shadows that people

my stories, abuela, have their home

in your sundown tales. My poetry sings

 

still with the rhythm of your voice, images

have been shaped before in the pictures

you etched with your face and fingers.

 

They will not be blurred by old minds

fumbling with remembrances, recuerdos,

abuela, of all that you left to sprout

 

in the moist and porous soil of our hearts

and the wild moss peats of our minds,

and every word from my pen is your word.

 

CANDLES AND EMPTY ROOMS

 

For Inang (Sra. Dona Sotera Martinez-Buenaventura+)

 

If you were here, I would know where you

are: you would be by the gaping window

where the statue of the Sagrada Familia

 

would be, lighting candle stubs, striking

matchsticks endlessly until all are lit,

and only the sound of struck flint remained.

 

Soon, you would be wandering among empty

rooms, calling out for me to put on my church

clothes for a walk to the Iglesia and pray.

 

However hollow those vaults were, or inert

those icons looked, the walls would vibrate

with your intoned oracion, and I’d feel safe.

 

---ALBERT B. CASUGA

 

* If a writer thrives on a spiritual life, these two women, my patertnal and maternal grandmothers, were the wellsprings of that large portion of my life.