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| SID GOMEZ HILDAWA |
| House Blessing |
| THE AUTHOR HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT TO THIS POEM. THIS IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. |
| THIS IS PART OF THE LITERATURA READING SERIES | CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO LITERATURA |
| This is your invitation to the blessing of our three-bedroom, split-level house which took one year and nine months to complete. Located at 2006 Makata avenue, Makati City. You won’t miss the burgundy gate behind Tropical motel along the superhighway. For all the trouble and expense that went into this house, we might as well have used wads of money for wallpaper, credit cards for tiles, coins for pebble wash-out. We tried to shape living quarters with care knowing this house will shape our lives in return. From what route we'll take from front door to pantry, shower to sofa; to what we'll see when we stare up the ceiling from beds, or glance down the garden from the balcony; to what we'll smell of the kitchen as we step out of the car after parking in the garage. But we can only plan so much, can only surmise what will play out within these walls, unravel along these corridors, and up and down balustrades that wind with the stairs. Going with the priest from room to room, dripping candle wax onto granite floors, you'll be suppressing a grin as holy water is sprinkled on the matrimonial bed. And although elders say that blessed coins collected from house blessings shouldn't be spent, we know they'll end up circulating eventually, as fees for parking, alms for children roaming homeless. We hope you can join us 10 a.m. this Sunday. RSVP. This poem is part of the collection that won Second Prize for Poetry in the 2006 Palanca Awards |