17/08/2024
A Brother's Light
On knee-deep halls with an array of voices,
Stalls fenced and intersecting faces.
With dewy mind clouded in mists,
I took a glance and offered him this:
“Ali diri d**g, atubangan ni ate,”
Keeping my brother near and happy.
In grasping the depth of happiness,
I'd look back on these as mere flashes.
Consider a steering wheel leading the way,
With each twist and turn, new paths come to segue.
In the shadows of woe, luck seems to beam,
For even in chaos, we yield our dream.
Yet in every turn that I take,
A sense of contemplation partakes.
Bearing the weight of our mother's neglect,
Brews the storm of the dreams I reject.
Through the chaos, my brother and I,
Souls engulfed beneath the colossal sky.
His hopeful eyes, a flicker of light,
Within my heart, shadows linger tight.
Words by Julie Rose Coronel
Photo by Melody L. Neñez
