Three by
Jonel Abellanosa
Holes and Gaps, Gaps and Holes
“ . . . so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl,
flash or thunder in.”
—Dylan Thomas, Poetic Manifesto
Mirror, mirror, on the wall
why is it always, “It is why.”
That’s it? “It’s that!”
Mirror, mirror on the wall
which travels faster,
light or sound, sound or light?
“Reflection, then echo.”
Do you hear? What do you
hear? Here? “There.”
Where? “Look, there.”
I see you, before I say
mirror, mirror on the wall.
My voice voices my
skin with little things.
I turn and turn, look around.
I see shades, moving shades
shades moving, shades
moving me. A movement.
My eyes through
and through— rivulets down
my cheeks. What
are those sounds? Mirror,
mirror on the wall. “Sounds,
those are. Sounds you, now,
here.” Mirror, mirror
on the wall, there used to be
none. Now, here.
God is in Love
Whoever constructed planet Earth
is a linguist
structural multilingual verbalist
obsessed with verbs, sights and sounds
pleasured ventriloquist shuffling feet
meters from you and me talking about Michelangelo,
meters from toots and horns alliterating
traffic and highways, anger and praise
sounded in the same anthem and place
Whoever constructed planet Earth
is transliteralist
metrical dancestepper sending feet
shadows on the floor’s light fantastic,
a feat, desire another fantasy shush, foreplay lust,
gathering of the party, automobiles
well parked commas, bow ties a personal cadencia,
ritmo in the world sartorial perspective, worn view
Do you smell the box and bouquets
making us, or them, black, and blue, purple,
“gray area,” groggy, the tipsy view spinning
from the punch, alcoholic, of the mix
in the bowl?
Whoever constructed planet Earth
is spelling echolalia,
reciting glossolalia,
mechanic spellbinder echoing high and low tides,
binding re and site to resite scenes,
perception and memory unhyphened,
insight halved and separated for an object
to be in sight on the horizon
nature’s line treed with nurture
engineering geodetic frequencies,
how often time reorients and revibrates
(re orients and re vibrates) geometries
of what you and I think we know is,
is
you and I
spacing for care to be our safe place
before we’re at last convinced it is
a safe place, care, a place of love,
love also a place
You and I, talking of Michelangelo,
we are, all of us, we are in love,
we breathe in love, placed in love
It is ours all of us, together, we humans
and we’re them, too, nonhuman sentient beings
we shall one day no longer call animals,
or plants, the planet God as Tongue Twister’s
open and soft palm,
a place
for all of us, and them, too,
too
we live in the concrete language
of God’s invention, touchable construction,
you and I are touched, we are, all of us, touched,
given the expanding limit to, of, how often
we re live paragraphs of our participation
in this universal creation
of how we at last find each other
and our selves in light&love
for God so love the whorled
he gave his only shape Michelangelo
Forge
Flame the rare bird eyes reflect.
Light holds shadows. Spirit opening
like a hand. I enter my mind.
I long the center, fervor when
scorches ice my flesh, my form
pliant to change. Prayer is water,
offering consumed, sacramental
host lifted. Aware as the third eye,
I compose, bones reciting psalms.
I rebuild from ruins, hymnal
skeleton. Lines I fill pages, taut
sounds, memory an urn for ashes.
Jonel Abellanosa is a Cebuano, residing in Cebu City, the Philippines. He is a nature lover and an advocate for the environment, ecological balance and animal rights and comforts. He has three companion dogs—Donna, Yves and their lovechild, Daisy. His works have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Dwarf Stars and Best of the Net Awards. His poetry and fiction have appeared in hundreds of magazines and anthologies, including, The Cape Rock, Otoliths, Muddy River Poetry Review, Chiron Review, Invisible City, The Lyric, The McNeese Review and The Anglican Theological Review. His poetry collections include, Songs from My Mind’s Tree and Multiverse (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York), 50 Acrostic Poems (Cyberwit, India), In the Donald’s Time (Poetic Justice Books and Art, Florida) and Pan’s Saxophone (Weasel Press, Texas).