Self-Service
I know the way you feed
your wife and children.
I see you asleep at daytime
as though it were night.
The bamboo floor
complains about your
body weight and
length of unconsciousness.
You move and change
position to achieve
the most comfortable
stance, and the kubo (hut)
you have built for your
family shakes, and the
loosely fastened or nailed
structures creak, and
it irritates the lizards
adopted by your
hospitable house.
The vacant, fertile backyard
shouts to waken,
but you are deaf.
The tansan (bottle cap) of newly
opened liquor of your
neighbor falls and
touches the ground and
clangs and, now,
cures your unique deafness
and wakes you up.
Your kumpare (male friend) invites you
for "one shot,"
but you violate some
math rules and
equate one shot
to two cuatro-cantos (gin).
You come home
zigzagging, uttering
words not found
in your undrunk vocabulary.
Before the door
you throw up and
feed the dogs
with your delicious pulutan (viand).
Your hungry wife
screams in anger
and sets innocent, empty
kalderos (cooking pot) in flight.
Copyright © Sherwin Balbuena | Year Posted 2012
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