an old flame from manila had just moved to chicago. a not-so-kind friend told me yesterday.
once, this old boyfriend and i combed the white tongue of badian beach licking the plankton-heavy waters of the cebu channel. the sails of the outriggers dipped and rose and dipped again on the horizon. they shimmered like candy striped shark fins playing hide and seek with us.
once, i was in love with this boy and with my own blindness to his infidelities. "how in the world can't you see?" my friends would ask me then.
that was almost a decade ago. tropical typhoons karing, luning, maling and a thousand others have since roiled the sunset coast of cebu. and hundreds of thousands of rutting bottle nosed dolphins have crossed that channel ever since toward their mating grounds somewhere up north.
but last night, i dreamt i was still walking on the beach, this time alone. and just like that, the sea has retreated and keen eyed fishes have already dove back with the waves to the deep. except for this one, silvery eyed, writhing and gasping on the dry and caustic beach.
