Jonel Abellanosa


Lunch Break


Aromas, pleasures of coaxing flavors,
Bulbs of onion, cubed garlic browning in
Canola oil, pungency coloring the air,
Day reaching peak hour, another chapter
Enfolded. I reward myself with a good meal:
Fish sauce, water and black beans, vinegar,
Grouper broiled in shortest time possible.
Heart is a pantry, play’s storeroom where
Ingredients wait like toys. Few recipes beat
Joys of discovery, so I experiment with
Ketchup, tomatoes, bell pepper. Like
Love harmonious with the past, wafts
Measured with memories. I ladle the soup,
Numinous attention poured slowly on the fish,
Overwhelmed with reverence while adding
Pineapple chunks, sweet juice of the
Quaint moment. I reduce the flame like
Remains of a song. Cutlery will converse with
Silence in a remembered language, the
Tongue and taste embracing like a couple
Under the palate, their regard for each other
Veracious. My obsessions wait in my room
Where I also artifice tastes, where I leave
Xenophobia. Outside my room I also pray,
Yearn for company, blessing like glass of
Zinfandel to the present, the shortlasting



Kite

I
wondered
how the place
would look like from
above. I created an out of
body bird from bamboo and
wallpaper, attached it to
a string. Guiding it
with a blanked
mind,
I let
the
wind
lift
it
higher
then
closed
my
eyes




Jonel Abellanosa resides in Cebu City, the Philippines. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, recently in The Penmen Review, Poetry Quarterly, Anglican Theological Review, Penwood Review, Philippine PEN Literary Journal, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and Pedestal; forthcoming in New Mystics, Deep Water Literary Journal, Poetry Pacific, Gadfly: Culture that Matters and Mystic Nebula. His chapbook, Pictures of the Floating World, has been published by Kind of a Hurricane Press. He is working on a number of chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections.
 
 
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