From Alternative Prosaicnesses: First Poems
published by Down With Grundy, Publisher
(now Banana-Cue Books, Publisher)

Laughed

 

They have a way of heckling homosexuals
             or suspected bisexuals.
They say "toot, toot" and that's how the
             gays themselves call each
Other in the flat plaza, nights. The beauty
             parlor beauties gather
There for the offered meat of Filipino boys
             who could use high school
Payments gays offer as tokens of friendship
             and charity. These are
Mostly beauty parlor manicurists, hairstyl-
             ists, although
There are also lawyers, doctors. There is
             a priest, but
He doesn't join the group in town nights.

There was the young man back from the big
             city,
The younger ones saw him wearing a ponytail,
             a dangling
Earring, a hat, sometimes a bracelet a girl
             gave to
Eddie, that was his name, and the older
             people
Said, oh jesus Eddie too has become a homo-
             sexual now
At 30. The girls too saw Eddie and when Ed-
             die said hi
The girls laughed and giggled to themselves,
             but that was okay
'Cos Eddie had a smart girlfriend in Manila.

The cops saw Eddie and said, why, isn't that
             the son of
Engineer Alvarez, why he's now a faggot,
             isn't he? And
The town councilors said, that is not at all
             homosexual, we think,
That is a drug addict. That is how drug ad-
             dicts look like
In Manila and maybe you ought to bring him
             in too. Hah,
That is just so you can fuck him up the ass,
             quipped the
Cops. Eddie came, went, Engineer Alvarez'
             son with
The city earring and the hat and the red

Bracelet. He'd walk up the new concrete and
             street kids'd call
"Toot, toot" and the elder men'd say tsk tsk
             and the girls
Said oh Go-o-o-o-o-d! and there'd be snick-
             ering and then
There'd be silence and then debates. That is
             a drug addict,
Can't you see him often pass by with his
             guitar,
I don't know a homosexual with a guitar,
             they don't
Play guitars they play the piano. And one
             says they do now
Can't you see in music videos on the faggot-

Filled TV? But Eddie of course had old
             friends at their corner
So later talk gathered that he had a girl-
             friend in Manila,
From Manila. Seen at the airport in the si-
             lence of
An afternoon, airport personnel said, isn't
             that the
Homosexual from the nearby town? Look, he's
             a bisexual
Too isn't he. He is he is, with that nice
             hair and that
Fine face he's a cocksucker too but he's
             pretending
To be male and got himself a cute and flashy

Girlfriend. So the heterosexual took his
             girl to his mother's
Hometown but it was the same old story here.
             Y'see, the province
Is not just one town, it starts from the
             capital city
Surrounding instinct areas, reaching on to
             the hearing territory
Down to the vision areas, reverberating in
             the caves
Of the personality area and on to the shaved
             forests in the
Speech area where the yawn of apes and the
             brains of
Pigs flatten the earth to be their encyclopedia

 

                                                                       -- 25 July/92

 

Copyright © 1999, 2001 Vicente-Ignacio Soria de Veyra. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to view, save, file and print out single copies of this webpage for their personal use. No reproduction, display, performance, multiple copy, transmission, or distribution of the work herein, or any excerpt, adaptation, abridgment or translation of same, may be made without written permission from the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this work will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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