Charcoal Days

Jose Marte A. Abueg is the current Managing Editor of the Inquirer GMA Network Company. He also contributes news stories and literary articles to other newspapers such as the Manila Times and the Philippine News. This poem speaks of love which inspires and gives color to his world yet the persona is not able to tell whether the one the lady loves her in return. He thought of her as someone existing only in her dreams but in the end, he showed hints of asking for her love so that he may as well live those dreams.

Leslie Mae Rivero

Charcoal days
Jose Marte A. Abueg
When I go to visit the clouds again

I hope you won’t hide yourself like

last time.

Kissed you in a dream this morning

I said.

You took cover and said

that had better be

a poem.

The tropical depression is forecast

to cross over from the east

to where afternoons

often end.

Once when I watched the sun it colored me

and the sky while a little boy

drew a giant face

on the orange-tinged shore.

I didn’t know about cyan and magenta

cool turquoise courting young maize

but soon I was to know

burnt sienna like loam and gravity

green grew out of yellow and black

and rose from copper in a flame

akin to that realm where light and hours

went forward and back. It was a dream

I said. You said

nothing

no hint

of where the sun would go

these charcoal days.

The tints and dyes are here. After the rains

have washed all

in the flight and alchemy of another

late afternoon I shall draw your face

and color those clouds.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/icasocot/poem01.html