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| SID GOMEZ HILDAWA |
| How to be a Ceiling |
| 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 |
| On her hospital bed, Pacita Abad deciphered the ceiling as though it were a dead sea scroll testament on the meaning of upside- down. We seldom look up long enough, she said, taking a floor mop for a brush and painting multi-colored circles and spirals on the whitewashed surface the way one would curl up rainbows, spin the iridiscence of corals into nautiluses, fasten mirror buttons to bottlecaps as emblems to the bubbly fizz of soda water; while she sang the groovy hits of the boogie-woogie sixties, made trapunto with her hospital gown, fixing it beside the smoke alarm. Next morning, nurses came and took her pulse, blood pressure. Doctors in white examined her heart. Beloved Jack brought in a bouquet of blooms, looked up, and marvelled at the Sistine Chapel psychedelic. This poem is part of the collection that won Second Prize for Poetry in the 2006 Palanca Awards |