Marlon Hacla and Kristine Ong Muslim
Translated from Filipino by Kristine Ong Muslim
Aside from water, aside from sailing, killings
and results of counting steps,
in pursuit of danger as well as familiarity
of gestures shielded from view by dayandang trees.
The season’s too cold for leaping
to conclusions on whether constellations are drifting farther
away from us. Doomsday cultists are coming out of the woodwork
these days, crowing about supposed signs
of the Second Coming. Do we now synchronize
our positions, are the children’s hearts
getting healthier, are the horses
trotting faster than before? Suppose I imagine
birds, will that conjure birds?
If I visualize paradise,
will that render visible the wind’s unseen machinery,
will that produce names for all kinds
of wounds to make plain the level of damage wrought
to the environment, to explain the water rise
going beyond the expected limits
assuming we can still consider as limits
the coiled ropes and upright pickets of my unease?
Author: Marlon Hacla
Marlon Hacla’s first book,
May Mga Dumadaang Anghel sa Parang (Manila: National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2010), was published as part of UBOD New Authors Series II. His second book,
Glossolalia, was published by High Chair in 2013. He also released two chapbooks,
Labing-anim na Liham ng Kataksilan (2014) and
Melismas (2016). He lives in Quezon City, Philippines, with his cats.
View all posts by Marlon Hacla
Author: Kristine Ong Muslim
Kristine Ong Muslim is the author of nine books of fiction and poetry, including
The Drone Outside (Eibonvale Press, 2017),
Black Arcadia (University of the Philippines Press, 2017),
Meditations of a Beast (Cornerstone Press, 2016),
Butterfly Dream (Snuggly Books, 2016),
Age of Blight (Unnamed Press, 2016), and
Lifeboat (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2015). She is also the translator of two bilingual volumes of Marlon Hacla’s work:
Melismas (Oomph Press, 2020) and
There Are Angels Walking the Fields (forthcoming from Broken Sleep Books). Widely anthologized, Muslim’s short stories have appeared in Conjunctions, Dazed Digital, and World Literature Today.
View all posts by Kristine Ong Muslim
