nostalgia ***** WHEN I GO HOME TO PALILAN
(written a night before I go back home, Manila to Palilan, Jimenez, Mis.Occ. circa 2000)
When I go home to Palilan I would hurriedly walk on the long road to home.
I’ll throw my warmest smile and look straight thru their eyes who surprise prettily about my unpredictable journey from somewhere they never know as I come back without crown they expect.
I’ll greet them the way how my strange friends welcomed my rare visits and wrote poems on what it’s like to fill up the missing link for my extended home.
I’ll show them how challenging the world exists beyond our own barangay
What life I have experienced while climbing legendary mountains, sailing rainstormy seas, exploring risky cities.
When I go home to Palilan I’ll go to the river then take my time at the back of my elementary school yard
I’ll face the water and count the floating clouds
I’ll spread my imagination on its transparent surface and when my imagination ceases I’ll recall my childhood wounded memories
When I get back to my home I’ll never break the family’s chain again
If they ask me where I had been I’ll read my touching anthology, open my album of memories, my loose life, my past, my everything, my solitary journey with empty pocket so perilous I feel
I’ll tell my younger bro and sis that there are roads somewhere we haven’t crossed yet. Highways we shouldn’t be afraid to explore as if sailing to the sky a smooth path for our unreachable future
When I go home to Palilan, I’ll give this narrative piece to my mama’s hand and be posted in our renovated wall near the wooden stair where I can read easily everytime I go back home.
poem by Rommel Mark Dominguez Marchan
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
