THE LILT OF A NOSEFLUTE: A DIVE INTO ORIGINS

MY POEM TODAY was prompted by Luisa Igloria's poem, "Where We Live" in Via Negativa.


THE LILT OF A NOSEFLUTE: A DIVE INTO ORIGINS

(For all my Baguio Cousins)


The lilt of a noseflute over the farthest reaches
 Of the valley is an echo of sundown orisons
You long for; it is as true as the joy of a harvest
Dance, and laughter over who finds the longest
Marrow inside the butchered offering’s bones,
Or cull the biggest bowl of buffalo’s ligaments
That could float or sink into the vats of caldo,
Keeping us all warm and raring for jars of basi
While we sing or even howl carousing songs
Known only to this edge of the terraces where
Endless sunsets will mark the birth and rebirth
Of the fondest and happiest remembrances
Of a time gone by that villagers thought was all
That can be, and nothing more. Thus, a sacrifice.

You grew beyond those magical full moon rituals,
And discovered your own necromancy elsewhere
Where dead worlds are decreed alive again from
Your throne of songs and words, where finally
You feel the throb of these mountains in your
Veins and wish they were plucked like strings
In your heart and make you sing as the happy
Child that must return with the sun, again and
Again, in glorious bravura over these blue hills,
Unapologetic, and never merely a background.


---ALBERT B. CASUGA

*Caldo - Bone Soup; Basi - Sugar Cane Wine
A Photo by Bobby Wong, Jr., Ifugao Rice Terraces, Philippines