Tula ni Lakambini

Nitong huling dalaw ko sa Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, sinabi sa akin ng mga dati kong kaopisina na may nalathala raw na tula ni Myla sa Philippine Graphic kamakailan. Hindi namin namalayan ang pagkakalathala ng tula dahil mahigit isang taon na ang nakalilipas mula nang ipasa ito ni Myla. Ayon sa sources namin, mismong ang national artist na si Nick Joaquin ang pumipili sa mga tulang inilalabas sa Graphic. Asteeg, di ba?

Kung may pera at panahon pa kayo, sana makakuha kayo ng mga natitirang kopya nitong magazine na ang cover ay kasama ng post na ito. Nasa ibaba ang tula.

Writing moments I feel the need to write
with my head
I feel the need to catch
the words that come flying
across the wind
before they leave me
for another drifterRain pours softly
like a song from a past
I could not remember
Sad thoughts come running
through my hands, into thin paper
And I forget to breathe when
tears fail to leave my eyes.

Words come to me like
morning hunger strikes
Subtly first, then gently
eating away sentience
until one can think of nothing
more but the moment
of multicolored themes.

I feel the need to write
While silence fills the second
And I remember to be a stranger
To a world where everything
freely questions anything
Dysfunctionality then
becomes my very nature.

No one joins me in this place.
I lock myself firmly
with a cloud of smoke,
my pen and paper,
my solitude and hunger
As I try to catch the words that
come flying across the wind.

-Myla H. Torres