Rizal upon Hearing David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”
He walks like that just to walk for five
years, never averting his eyes. Five
years before, he planted five
year-old conifers amidst five
towering sand dunes and the five
Great Lakes reverting into meadows
narrating their own stories of being stuck
in that folding and unfolding motion
like a car wheel churning in the mud
There’s sun and hands unclasping
Five years of holding up his head
Five years in those imperishable hands
Five years with nothing to hitch his star on
Five years of time spent and five on parole
Five years of building five end-stopped lines
I’ve grazed on these streets for five years
I’ve cracked the steps of these five years
I’ve retreated in peace for all of five years
And wore the facade of time in five years
I’ve etched all this rage inside for five years
Five years and five arterial rainbows
Five years and thirty seconds of doubt
Five years of inhabiting dilapidated silos
Five years of burning and gathering
Five years’ worth of ashes from five eloquent ruins
