AMIHAN MORNINGS

- Poetry -

Emmanuel Lacadin, Phillipines

I.

The incense of smoke from firewood

burning wakes us for another

Amihan morning–

a cauldron of

hot water

layers of char worn

like a jet-black

coat from years of working

with flames

Mama bellows from downstairs,

“tanghali na, bangon na!”

II.

In the dining table I am rendered

immobile by

the cold needing warmth

which I seek from

a hot cup of Milo and

the radiating back of

a humming GE refrigerator

older than I am.

For 10 minutes now, everything

has been done from memory:

bite from a forked hotdog

crinkled by the cold,

fried too early with tulog na mantika

at the roosters first crow.

III.

I temper the water

the first pour scalding

on the bare body.

Emman is a 25-year-old poet, essayist, and flash fictionist from the Philippines. Some of his works have appeared in Cordite, Journal of Southeast Asian Ecocriticism, Ani, Katitikan, and Voice & Verse. In 2020, he received the Loyola Schools Awards for the Arts in Creative Writing (Poetry) and Mulry Award for Literary Excellence from the Ateneo de Manila University.