Self-portrait
BY XENIA-CHLOE H. VILLANUEVA I NOVEMBER 30, 2010

Jeeps and buses were for going somewhere.
Their metal bodies and those thin strips of neon décor
vectoring towards one point.

Windows frame signs
she would watch for: her mother’s gate, father’s van, lover’s head
drooping from a balcony.
Her body frozen forward

poised to move, alight
at the right moment but not today;

not these nights.
There is no body
To alight.

No jeep or bus or train.
The hair on her head
(when there is no head also)

flapping like a swallow.

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