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| SID GOMEZ HILDAWA |
| Malchus at Gethsemane |
| THE AUTHOR HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT TO THIS POEM. THIS IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE TRANSLATOR. |
| THIS IS PART OF THE LITERATURA READING SERIES | CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO LITERATURA |
| Everything sounded off, with my right ear
Slashed by this disciple who had snatched My sword when we closed in on the one Judas marked with a kiss. My cry seemed To me a garden jolted from sleep by a legion Of cicadas. I didn't even worry about missing The rumble of chariots and centuries, just the call Of my mistress from her hideout in the woods Followed by moans and the rustle of sheets. The one we came to arrest picked up my ear And restored my sense of things, so that I hear: The salamander teasing the moon as it serenades The olive trees, what the water says when a wind Wants to pick a fight with the stones, the harvest Chant of ants in chorus with the yawning of leaves, Riddles told by the lonely toad, tall tales of trees Lining the road. The symphony of space cradling All of creation, as it skids along the axis of time. The Galilean had said something about dying By the sword. I left it dumbstruck on the ground. This poem won Second Prize in the 2005 Philippines Free Press Literary Awards |