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Bino Realuyo: “The Other Rebel”

May 29, 2019 by PBQ Leave a Comment

The Other Rebel

             after your last words, 
             “you cannot have us both.” 

 
Your open lips on my chest—what I heard last, 
what stayed the longest, second only to white noise 

that began when you left, fever-faced, for your
cherry blossom garden, an island of impermanence,
Mono no aware, where nothing lasts. Transience
 
is not a language hearts speak.  Mine was taught
to speak longevity, the why not try and try again.

How I ended up with the two of you was not the
work of desire, but of truths unfolding inside me 
more than yours, pages of a red red rose revealing 

how three hearts could bloom from rebellions. 
That night, I stayed at my only spot to take root,   

learning to find essence in the ephemera, how 
cherry blossoms bloom together only to die at once.




*Mo no aware is a Japanese term used to describe the cultural idea of impermanence, especially 
one associated with cherry blossoms. 





The Other Rebel

             para Victor 


I don’t know what your departure taught me.
Our last night was no tea ceremony. (I didn’t
know the essence of tea until a decade later.)

My heart lost its tongue after a series of silence
interlocking like columns of a wooden pagoda.  
I had no wood left, no pillar to keep me still

and learn from moments, what we were
always taught: forgive, distance, undo.  
It was silence I swallowed when you left.  

A Karakuri doll that only turned around as soon 
as you lifted its weight, facing a wall until 
it’s wound again for tea time.   I imagine 

how many gods you will meet.  Benzaiten, 
flowing, flowing from the past, Idaten, speeding
into the future.  Kami in everything we touched.

Filed Under: Issue 99, Poetry 99

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