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By Rodrigo Dela Peña

And news spread
all over the town, a virus, a fear

of contagion,  
a panic. Muse, amuse me. Let me catch

the delirium,  
feverish dreams to get lost in while wide

awake, the gift  
of tongues. Let me pronounce the word

subversive:
plibustiero, pelbistero, palabistiero.  

Each rivulet
contains a voice, murmurous, illicit ghost

of an echo
still ringing in the ears. All I know

is a fraction
of what can be known, the air’s omniscience.  

How many birds
have come to roost, their feathers woven  

into the foliage?
In the teeming wilderness, I have lost  

count, unsure
of whose call belongs to whom, whose caw

and chittering
edges the night. Only the ground arrests  

whatever falls,  
ready to receive rain, untethered leaves,  

a body
collapsing after being struck by a bullet.

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A Filipino writer based in Singapore, Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr. is the author of Requiem, a chapbook. He is a recipient of the Palanca Award for Poetry in the Philippines, as well as awards from British Council Singapore's Writing the City.