In Your Dreams | Visions

Imagine.Mankind sending massive solar panels to float in the sky. The size of a small town, the arrays are capable of harvesting sunlight enough to power a machine that creates clouds. Think of the solar arrays being positioned into orbit; into places across the planet that are in desperate need of water. With the rain maker high in the atmosphere, (carried there by balloons the size of jumbo

Secretly

It must have been Bon Ivler's Stacks that first caught my attention, or the playlist where the song used to be a part of. It might have been the pictures of the city we both love (and loathe). Maybe it is our passion for history, our shared cat personality, the joy we get from sunsets and breathtaking urban landscapes, or our intimate knowledge of trivial facts. It is his interests that kept me

Home Improvement

V.All the maid has to do is tell me that our dust pan is broken. "Nasira? Paano?" Heaps of trash covered the floor. I decided to move the spilling garbage from the bins to the trash bags.  The maid showed me the poor thing to prove her point. It's edges were torn. It's scooping capacity, reduced. The state of the dust pan didn't surprise me at all. I have seen it around the house for a decade and

Trekkie

IV.Some of us have always known that the world used to spin in uneasy peace. There were the stars and stripes, and the hammer and sickle. Two global superpowers, whose array of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles pointed at each other. Under constant threat of annihilation, people devised ways to put sense into their lives. There were the flower hippies, whose music, spoken words and non-protest

Poverty of the Gut

III.Spent the holidays food binging and gym procrastinating. Ergo, I gained mass. I feel it every time I slip in my skin-tight jeans, and wear my medium-sized tees. Family pictures taken showed a much wider girth. My face is puffy. My arms, sagging. I returned to Eclipse on the second to reboot my progress. Tough love as Coach Blakedaddy said. It will take some time to undo those nights of

A Bus Ride

I warned my mom the other day that we won't fit inside the Tamaraw FX. It's New Year's eve and our lifelong tradition says that we should all go to Favorite Aunt's place and spend the Media Noche there. But the stubborn matriarch insisted that we will all fit inside the car. She even accused me of setting up a romantic date with someone on New Year's eve and that's the reason I don't want to

Parting Gift

She wakes up in the morning when everyone upstairs is still asleep. As the guardian of the little one, she gets out of the sofa, washes her face, and takes the baby from the sleeping parents. The little tyke closes his eyes before everyone does at night. But his sound slumber doesn't mean the end of her work. Sometimes she stays up until midnight to pacify the tantrums of the older one. Some late

Between Exes

Yet you still value the things you've lost the most. Because the things you've lost are still perfect in your head. They never rusted. They never broke. They are made of the memories you once had, which only grow rosier and brighter, day by day. They are made of the dreams of how wonderful things could have been and must never suffer the indignity of actually still existing. Of being real. Of

Traffic Jam Moment

I was doing some gift wrapping in the living room this morning when my nephew appeared in front of me. In his hands were toy vehicles he took out from the toy box. My nephew carefully arranged the toys on the coffee table to simulate a rush hour traffic. A truck and a bus, longer than his arm lead the queue while plastic cars smaller than his fist line behind. The other half of the table is

Happy Little Camper

Eve.The director approved my two-day vacation leave early this week. It will start in a few hours, but the excuse I gave was just a ruse. Sabi ko sa e-mail, "I will attend to some personal things," which he replied "ok" after I gave my assurance that I will still look after my shift. Buti na lang, he didn't pry into the details of my absence. He won't get an honest answer. -After four straight

Into The Barakos

"May gagawin ka? Wanna meet later?" A stocky guy with a headless display picture asked. His invitation filtered through a private message."Yup. I have work, dude."The guy and I got acquainted on Twitter the night before. Ayos lang. I was the one who trailed first so I was grateful for the follow-back. However, things got uneasy when he invited me for coffee. I read his direct message just hours

Liftoff From Planet Romeo

Dear HavokSS,I may come up with scores of excuses for your revival. I was bored, lonely and this difficulty in accepting what I have been reduced to drove me to crash again on the same planet. I wanted to know how I will measure against other men, and see where this searching will lead me. A good lay, I thought, will turn everything okay. Sex heals, and makes people feel better about themselves.I

The Weatherman

3:50 amIt was 2 in the morning when he showed up at the front door. Exhaustion covered his face. His faint smile, soft, crackling voice and sleepy eyes made it look like he had just been pulled from the battlefield. Only hours before Pablo's landfall, he had decided to call it a night. His watch began at twilight the day before, and way past daybreak, he was still sending weather advisories only

Moving (On) Without A Sound

CreditThe leviathan glides on,seeking some unknownclearing of light at the endof its solitary voyage,a journey marked onlyby the fearful spacesof empty ocean.And yet how can it survive?The Last Leviathan, Ruel De VeraThe Most Careful of Stars

Utol

Someday, Baby Lenin will look back and say."Yaaaaaak, I kissed you on the cheek!?!"Your uncle told you so.So that when you both get into trouble, and we're no longer there to fight your battles, you'll know you have no one else to lean to but your brother.

Mellow

My starving ears may have its fill of euphoric, adrenalin-dripped thumping sounds of the dance floor. But when I am disarmed and my heart is exposed, the songs on my playlist mellow to these:Natalie Walker - ColorblindHeard the song played on Jam 88.3's A Different Sunday one evening and the melody got stuck in my ears ever since. The Counting Crow's cover speaks of someone's willingness to come

Sentry Post

My sister and her family, including my two young nephews spent the long weekend with the in-laws. If not for the maid, the lesbian driver and her trusted assistant, the occupants of the house would just be me and my mother.Many things could happen when there are few people at home. I can sneak out at the middle of the night - like I used to - and find myself in some other's bed, or at the heart

Fortitude

You may call it an affair - I mean, me and my plants. I water them late at night. When no one would catch my Martha Stewart humming, as steady drops of water go on a free-fall from my window. It is a matter of self-sacrifice as well. The pots keep the same window from getting shut. So when rain passes and a shear blows water towards my room's direction, it can soak everything - including the

In Transit

"At talagang kinunan mo ng picture ha?"I said while we stood at the bend, on a bridge gutting out of the reclaimed land. In front of us was the other face of the famed bay, seldom seen in postcards but breathtaking and inspiring nonetheless. To the fisher folks who live in ramshackle houses, the bay remains a fulcrum in their see-saw lives. They flocked its shores to mark the passing of another

Shades of Lust

I was waiting for a new-found friend to go online - there - when a kid sent me a private message."Where in Santa Mesa?"A polite question required a polite answer."Near Altura. Ikaw?"He gave his location and because of the affable tone of our exchange, the conversation went on. We traded face pictures, asked what we're doing on Romeo's World (said I was listening to my mp3s at the moment) and when