UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/DEXTER CANETE


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY

DEXTER CANETE

In a second floor apartment,
as the paint peels and the soot on the windows thickens,
the writer lies on the edge
of the bed,
unconscious.
A bottle of rum lies
empty on the floor,
commemorating the end of
3 years' labor, longer than any mother's for a child.
So, now, on the table lies
the finished manuscript,
the best novel ever written,
which will remain
unpublished.

Down on the street, a woman
bruises
the tomatoes in her bag of groceries,
in her hurry to catch romance
on channel 9.
At the same time, a man walks
with put-on eagerness
to a cafe where
he will sit alone for hours,
wishing a woman
sat across him.
They go in opposite directions, and
their eyes
for the first time
and the last.
And the greatest love in the world
will remain
unconsummated.

Dexter Canete is a 33-year-old advertising copywriter from the Philippines.