20040818
echolalia - paolo manalo
First published in Literary Review, Spring, 2000
1.
Misunderstand the initial
reaction--
there is no I.
ay tell you, the mispronounced
vowel
goes well
with the wayward
bus on its last trip: no matter
how you say it, as long as you get their
attention--
please, allow me to outtalk the obvious:
an epol is still an apple as long as it's read
that way,
speech not centered on the reaten
word.
In Russian that red fruit
may well
be our tongue's devil
in disguise, yabloka, diablo ka,
the root of evil
still--
truth was, the moment
when either epol or fig
or figment of epol was partaken,
the tongue shapened
in the serpent's form.
2.
Food for toot: the tongue knows they serve no apple pie in
fastfoods.
It cannot be tricked, servant to substitute, it knows sayote as
it's feeling.
The gap where the teeth should be.
And then biting the fruit pit:
the bale borrowing lost meaning.
The kwan.
The ano.
3.
Bale, all my friends' kwan
begins and ends with bale:
it's more kwan than habit, more
kwan, you know, bale.
Bale, I can get your kwan whole
sale from Kwan, bale.
Bale, but if it's free, it's free:
hindi bale, size doesn't matter
it's the toot that counts.
4.
Anong toot? What do You take me for,
granted? You think I don't know
anything? Now I know everything.
What do You think of me,
thinking of You? I can think
of many things now. Before You toot
of the moon, I invented the moon
buggy, the yoyo. Now you can't look down
on me. I invented the dictionary.
So look me up. I'm somewhere
between agnostic and idiot.
I'm Catholic. Filipino. Ano?
5.
Once more with peelings:
this time, no more filling
the blanks--
no more pakwan,
watermelons out of order.
No more bale,
God knows
Hudas not pay. So paano?
Haw haw de karabaw ...
the song following the child's
skip rope, the child following
the bouncing ball. De kodigo,
de kut-sil-yo, the knife blade making
paandar.
Gash, I'm bleeding.
What scream
should be heard at this moment when
an act of stupidity deserves an act of kindness?
When in doubt use the thesaurus.
[ web page ]
¶ 8/18/2004 11:38:00 PM
1.
Misunderstand the initial
reaction--
there is no I.
ay tell you, the mispronounced
vowel
goes well
with the wayward
bus on its last trip: no matter
how you say it, as long as you get their
attention--
please, allow me to outtalk the obvious:
an epol is still an apple as long as it's read
that way,
speech not centered on the reaten
word.
In Russian that red fruit
may well
be our tongue's devil
in disguise, yabloka, diablo ka,
the root of evil
still--
truth was, the moment
when either epol or fig
or figment of epol was partaken,
the tongue shapened
in the serpent's form.
2.
Food for toot: the tongue knows they serve no apple pie in
fastfoods.
It cannot be tricked, servant to substitute, it knows sayote as
it's feeling.
The gap where the teeth should be.
And then biting the fruit pit:
the bale borrowing lost meaning.
The kwan.
The ano.
3.
Bale, all my friends' kwan
begins and ends with bale:
it's more kwan than habit, more
kwan, you know, bale.
Bale, I can get your kwan whole
sale from Kwan, bale.
Bale, but if it's free, it's free:
hindi bale, size doesn't matter
it's the toot that counts.
4.
Anong toot? What do You take me for,
granted? You think I don't know
anything? Now I know everything.
What do You think of me,
thinking of You? I can think
of many things now. Before You toot
of the moon, I invented the moon
buggy, the yoyo. Now you can't look down
on me. I invented the dictionary.
So look me up. I'm somewhere
between agnostic and idiot.
I'm Catholic. Filipino. Ano?
5.
Once more with peelings:
this time, no more filling
the blanks--
no more pakwan,
watermelons out of order.
No more bale,
God knows
Hudas not pay. So paano?
Haw haw de karabaw ...
the song following the child's
skip rope, the child following
the bouncing ball. De kodigo,
de kut-sil-yo, the knife blade making
paandar.
Gash, I'm bleeding.
What scream
should be heard at this moment when
an act of stupidity deserves an act of kindness?
When in doubt use the thesaurus.
[ web page ]
¶ 8/18/2004 11:38:00 PM
