Prayer / Thunder by Jonel Abellanosa

Prayer  

I take deep breaths, mangrove forest 

growing in my lungs, dawn a sittella 

in the sky, neighborhood a lowland 

to survival desires. Birds have left 

my mind’s woods. Lament a pomegranate 

that falls. I retrace footsteps, childhood

grounds now hosting trees like Y slings, 

leafless. Seeing indiscriminate exfoliation, 

my community concreting in the name 

of progress, I’ve to be affectionate to anger - 

bleeding salamander. I hear shadows 

in crowns, ghosts singing to my imagination. 

I close my eyes, feeling water brim

behind eyelids. Gripped in heartache

I wish - let hours be light. Let 

the last birds rest from flight.

Thunder

 

Thud loud as wonder,

dome between my ears humming

the aftereffect. I feel gray, dull and heavy

as delight, pulsing me in its wake, resonant.

Carve a hollow circle in my stomach. I hold the pen 

as lightning, my bolted and inked arrow. Words peal, 

roll like the tongue, turning phrases. The metaphor 

a lion’s roar. I collapse the line like Jericho’s 

wall - I rebuild, image ruins, deluges 

of desire dump like rainfall, shadows 

haunting my ribcage.

Jonel Abellanosa lives in Cebu City, the Philippines. His poetry has appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies, including Black Poppy Review. His poetry collections include his full-length collection, "Multiverse" (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York). He is a nature lover, and has three dogs.