Come Home to Barotac Nuevo

a poem by Roger B Rueda

for Dida, Jade, Ruby, Gemma, Bernadette, Marissa, Valnie, May Mart, Judy Anne, Rachel, Phoebe, Sylvia, Giegie, Keith, Sharon, Andrew,  Lawrence, Francis, and Maricel

Revel in the land where Tamasak gazing

wistfully at the sky,

the field where you walked

together bringing back memories

of salad days.

Reminisce about the footballs

rolling across

the greenish carpet

of carabao grass,

the fishponds

where telescope shells

scuttle along the sludge,

the fiddler crabs

peep up from their holes,

and the eels slither into the water,

and the shrimps

skipping out

of the bamboo winnowers

as you, having a runny nose,

peddled bushels of them

at schools.

Move on through wet grass

soaking your legs

as you pinch the leaves

of the manyfruit primrosewillow

for your mung bean

porridge with prawn

in pink, curved body.

Savour the essence of each mouthful,

and bite on your linaga

with libas leaves well, or

your seabass stew.

Commune with wholeness

as you bring back a piece

of Barotac Nuevo

in you that has been travelling

from New York to Dubai,

from Ottawa to Istanbul,

from LA to Oslo,

solitary and longing,

and kiss the faces you left

slowly vanishing, yet still

with big smiles as you hand down

to the self you’ve left the children of your fate.





'Manyfruit primrosewillow' means 'lupo.'