She flicks her last cigarette
on the ground and steps on it
then grabs a broom to sweep
the street of the ashes
that remind her of him.
She doesn’t stop
until the asphalt is clean–
no filters left in the ditch,
until there is only the quiet
that comes after the sound
of the last embers fizzle out
like her memories of him:
how he loved to smoke
after they made love, how in turn,
she loved to watch him hold fire
at his fingertips without getting burned,
how the smoke he inhaled through his nose
always looked like they were tendrils
of her hair he loved to smell.
She sweeps these thoughts
into her dustpan and allows herself
to only recall the sound of her voice
when she promised to quit smoking
at his death bed.

Dear readers,

Please sign this petition I authored. I really need your help in getting this message out. I will be eternally grateful.

-rax

===============

Sign now.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ghwphil/

* Over 30 M Filipinos will suffer debilitating diseases and painful deaths due to smoking. Another 30 M Filipinos will suffer the same due to second hand smoke.

* 40 of the chemicals in cigarette smoke are carcinogens, like carbon monoxide, butane (used as lighter fluid), cyanide and formaldehyde, arsenic (rat poison), and ammonia (toilet cleaner). Ads do not disclose this.

Right now the textual health warnings for tobacco products cannot be understood or appreciated by the Filipino people. Other countries have recognized this and have since used picture based warnings in order to warn their citizens of the hazards of smoking. Statistics will show that such method is effective as it has significantly improved the overall health of their citizens.

The Filipino people have a right to life and health just as much as other citizens. They have the right to a better if not the best method to warn them of the danger inherent in smoking. The text warning right now is STILL NOT ENOUGH. Many are still smoking and dying while the young ones are curiously taking up the habit not knowing its effects, creating a vicious cycle of death that could be prevented through the use of picture based health warning that is universally understood by the people, especially the many who cannot read and understand.

Sign now. Because a picture can save millions of lives.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ghwphil

==========================

[this was a free write in gotpoetry.com’s tag-team-poem project the first line from lordfuznut]

[this was a free write in gotpoetry.com’s tag-team-poem project , the first line isn’t mine, its from hotstuff]

Come one, come all, The Ringing of the Bards Poetry Carnival will be coming to my soul phantasm blog on August 4, 2007. So mark that date on your calendar, folks, it will be a fantastic show!

However, I will be on hiatus for a while so please send your entries preferably by August 1st as it is my only free time to prepare the post (I’m taking a break from studying since it’s my birthday The carnival post itself will be up on the 4th.

For those who want to participate, send the following information to rax[AT]i.ph

1. The name and URL of your blog
2. Your screen name
3. The name of your poem
4. The URL to your poem

Hope to see you there.

[this was a free write in gotpoetry.com’s tag-team-poem project where one posts a poem and the next poster in the topic has to start the next poem with the last line of the previous poem…and so on, and so on… in short, the first line isn’t mine hehe…from Tekay]

1. I pick my nose. Yes. Same as ozy’s #1 though not in public (awww) BUT BUT BUT now here’s the gross part, I use my thumb

2. I used to bite my fingernails when I was little. Some friends helped me try to kick the habit. They made progress…now I just like ripping them off (big toe nail only)

3. I have fart wars with my brother and some very close friends [the more loud, or disgusting smelling the better!!!]. With a poet friend we had a game where we had to poetically describe the sounds or invent unique onomatopeia. For farts my favorite was the wordplay on “brat” (make sure to trill your tongue on the “r” sound)

4.. I also have burp wars with the same people. It becomes sort of a percussion chorus once theres a lot of you burping non stop. hehehe

5. Not grossed out yet? Back in my alcoholic days, I seemed pretty ok and was a quiet drunk…. as long I didn’t move much. One time though had to ride a car to somewhere else and had my first experience with motion sickness. So as soon as the car stopped at a red light, I opened the door (front passenger seat) and unloaded my guts on to the window of the next vehicle. eeeewww. [I am mindful that Ozy has an aversion to puke hahaha read on there’s more…]

6. Now that I had figured out I get car sick when drunk I challenged myself not to (always putting on a brave face you see, and finding ways to hold my liquor) well one time, i felt so dizzy and ready to puke inside the car except that it was my friend’s car and i just couldn’t do THAT there… I ehhhh puked anyway closed mouth and swallowed it all again without letting a drop spill. (groooosssssss…. top that! the korean movie ‘my sassy girl’ comes to mind)

7. Alcohol and cigarettes were an inseparable couple for me back then. I could not have one without the other. Once the drinking session runs late and we run out of smokes, ( either the convenience stores are closed or too far to buy a pack ) I would usually dig through the ashtray and relight any cigarette butts that hadn’t burned down to the filter yet. (eeewww… i would also take this opportunity to announce that i’ve quit smoking. i’ve been clean for one year!)

8. When drinking at carnivals or open air parties, and am too drunk to walk around to find a toilet, I would pee in dark corners of buildings, behind bushes, behind trees, behind wheels of parked cars etc… [with a friend as a look out] and I am not ashamed. If dogs can do it why can’t I? [hehehe]

—that’s it folks! hahaha. ah well, lets see if anyone will bother to come back. or on the bright side perhaps i’ll find some kindred spirits as well hahahaha—-

i don’t really know who to inflict this meme on. hahaha so I’ll think about it for awhile. But if any of anyone of you does get inspired by this post to write your own disgusting meme, leave me a link, i would love to read [misery loves company!!!] hahahaha famtz I think I might hear from you on this

 trying my hand at limericks... bear with me :)

And even those images fade, lost
somewhere between my growing up
from suplada[ to maulawon to this quiet
wariness of one tired of being redefined
every time I translate my memories, tired
of dropping friends as often as I did my R’s.

So when I found out you spoke spanish,
in a Mexican drawl you found I didn’t care to learn,
you brought your lips to mine, in a silence
that became my personal rosetta stone
etching this memory and those yet to be born:
ones where I found myself

whisper between kisses
“Ndimakukonda…je t’aime…mahal kita…”
in a flawless translation
of how you taught me to love:
with everything
I am.