Ivy Alvarez

Utak-biyâ*

for B

I am the calf that keeps running to the electric
fence of you, believing in the sweet meadow of the other
side. You may laugh but you want something else,
bare as you are, and humming all day, all night,
longing for the contact of a live thing like me,
too untutored to know any better, regret the shock
only briefly, you dare me every time with more,
the temptation of things beyond my tongue’s extension,
the metal flavour, the tender, the singed fur, fire, burning.

*Filipino idiom meaning having or showing a low level of intelligence (literally, brain of a goby fish)

*

Ugaling hayop*

for B

o breath you gallop in me
control is not easy is illusory
I find two hundred and six
emotions search my pockets
quickly rising tidal within
I can’t help it
perhaps I’m the culprit
perhaps I’m blameless
I swear I’m telling the truth and yet
here’s one I’m keeping
the speed
and stride reminiscent of pure
and full exertion at a stretch
every limb lithely delineated in the light
o breath
here keep going
I will if you will

*Filipino idiom meaning a very bad character (literally, animal character)