the smell of books
and old clothes
traveling back home

-Anthony Q. Rabang

balikbayan box
a child keeps looking
for her mom

-Anthony Q. Rabang

the adobo simmers
in the rice cooker
window sunbeams

-Anthony Q. Rabang

gentle wind –
the moon listens
to my stories

**

**

jeepney stop
a warm, fresh aroma drifting
from the panaderya

**

**

cobbled street –
a horse licks
the ice cream spill

**

**

children’s park
glowing in their eyes
salinggogon cymes

**

**

school festival
here and there
kulintang tunes

-Anthony Q. Rabang

kite festival –
my whole crayon set
up in the sky

Anthony Q. Rabang

ukay-ukay store
mix-and-matching clothes
in mismatched Jordans

-Anthony Q. Rabang

inabel blanket
an infant soothed by
the milky way

-Anthony Q. Rabang

still under
the colonizer’s watch
ceiling fresco

-Anthony Q. Rabang

old wallet
the disintegrating
bus tickets

-Anthony Q. Rabang