Maningning’s Bell Jar

FEU Advocate
October 10, 2023 09:37

By Beatrice Diane D. Bartolome

Consider the prayers frozen beneath hardened paint,
Or the millimeters in between letters of a poem.
What was once indistinguishable childish scribbles in purple crayon,
Now images of gaunt birds in sharp black lines.

And consider a head resting in a stove,
Or a foot dancing freely in boundless air.
What was once parts of promising young women,
Now left to fertilize perverse narratives for a jester to harvest.

Consider the girl who recklessly played on the school swings,
Or the artist with stained hands and a sweet foreign tongue.
What was once somebody’s wide-eyed daughter,
Now autopsies you capture in cheap Polaroid.

Consider these deaths you replay in your head.
Consider the life they had before April’s cruel winds.

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