Happy Birthday Mama!

Figure

Dark, brown eyes
Mirrors me!
They speak clearly, words
of sacrifice and love

The lips do not part.

On her chair, facing
to the right, in her eyes
Thought, calm against war.
Hands, scarred but proud.

The cup of coffee
sends a steam to her lungs
She sips slowly and wisely
making hollow the cup

But not less warm!
Her hands around it
thinking ahead, she eyes the sink
And let goes

The air moves slowly
Sharp against the creases
on her body! But she sits
as if she doesn’t know

How much she is loved
I can begin to tell,
But we are against words
as they move the air
around her even more.

Her hands are against her
not flailing for grasp!
Instead, she prefers sight
over the contact of touch.

I go hungry but I am not fed
rather I am observed as if
emptiness wasn’t a void.
She knew better for her mind

was the air of thought.

 *an original poem for my mother, still a very raw draft

It’s my mother’s birthday and to make it special, I sent her mail! Who knew the Philippines still had a public postal service? (hysterical laughter)

Not a lot of people know this but if you dig deep enough through her closet, you will find a leather-bound book filled with stamps from a lot of countries. My mother collects stamps!

This is shocking because my mother is a very practical lady. I never thought she would spend her time arranging tiny paper squares in an album. If only I could post pictures of her collection! Its truly fascinating that the first time I saw it, I told everyone in my high school about it. Haha. She kept it a secret for so long, probably to keep it away from my meddling hands.

I wrote her a two-page, personal later. They still owe me one after they forgot about the palanca letter they had to make for me for my pre-graduation high school retreat (they probably thought it was too sappy and unpractical, ha!). Aside from that, I included in the mail a picture of me releasing a paper lantern during UP’s Lantern Parade (I’m from Ateneo but I’m technically cross-enrolled) with details on the back. Just like the one I read about in books!

Of course, I couldn’t let that letter proceed without any self promotion! That would be silly and unlike me so I made a really simple card with her photo and mine while holding up a “happy birthday” sign side-by-side, in black and white with a simple “Happy Birthday, Mama” note below. Awww...

I dropped it off at the PhilPost office in UP (told ya’, cross-enrolled) with a Christmas card I was supposed to give to a good friend at the airport (but thanks to AirPhil for delaying my flight!)

BTW, I am still extremely guilty over almost forgetting to greet my father Happy Birthday last December. I was just too busy and I felt like crap after losing my phone and I was jumping from one homework to another. I would find him a gift and mail it to him, of course, using PhilPost! I’m sure he’d appreciate it. I could even write the date wrong so it would look like my mail just got stuck on its way!

You might suggest using e-mail which involves hitting “Send” instead of licking the envelopes shut and salivating to secure the stamps in place. Brilliant! But the magic from email had been long gone and was returned to the postal office. My parents don’t have e-mails. Well, I made them accounts but they never needed it so know, its filled with promotions from herbal companies.