handsburningdiggingoutsoil

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

Brandi Strickland Cave Garden II Collage, gouache, acrylic, and colored pencil on board, 2013, 14" x 11" print

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

Mabuhay ka, bakla!

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

Hiroshi Yoshida

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

What exactly is there across it all?

[handsburningdiggingoutsoil]

I have never seen one so frightening and beautiful. But she would arrive as a thunder; Then she would dance in the fire. "Burn me down," I would say, Or plant me down to your roots. I would let her stick her heart in my chest; Here is a flesh I will no longer use, Take all and these feelings that can't do And inhabit my soul. I would like for her to grow a forest Over the salt ocean that is saturating my skin. But if lightning like her would rumble, then flood me down and soak my soil—I am a willing drought. Here, I am hunger, And the pulsing of my veins are shameful desires, But when she comes, My knees will bleed, And I will worship her. -Jochelle Recto, WOMAN Poem backstory: I was listening to a song I had heard before when I was younger and closeted. I remember watching the music video of it, and I had this feeling of wanting to reach that euphoria and affection that the characters in the video have. Those feelings never got away. I'm still looking and searching for the words, yet making sense of my emotions. I am still trying to find out how love would feel like and what she would look like. I have always tried to write it out, but I never seemed to find the right words. Yesterday, as I was listening to the song, I have my mind on writing the poem. But I don't think I have already found her. Because I still don't feel that the poem and the visuals justified those feelings. I'll keep on searching.