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



Anthony Q. Rabang is a physician, poet, writer, teacher, and cultural worker from the Philippines. He started writing haiku, senryu, and other short-form poems in 2016, and his works have since been widely published, receiving international awards and
recognition. To amplify Filipino and other marginalized voices, he incorporates Filipino sensibilities, culture, heritage, and social justice into his writing, along with the experiences of the communities he has immersed himself in.

Anthony was a fellow of the 5th La Salle National Creative Non-Fiction Writers’ Workshop for Health Care Professionals & Medical Interns and the 2025–2026 Confluence Fellowship.
He shares his works online through his blog, Short Pauses:

http://shortpauses.substack.com/

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

silent rain
grandma weaves
war memories

-Anthony Q. Rabang