The Christening [Poetry]

The night was red, red as the stain

Of lips on neck, gold as the hoops

On ears divine, loud as the thump

Of heels and bed --

Body on body on body in Sodom

Out walks the bride and ringing bells,

Rose-cheeks blushing and painted eyes

She counts the days: eighteen years!

Long-awaited, the christening!

Here: the grooms, feel their skin:

Wrinkled, whiskered, rolls abound

Tongues on chin and poison-breath

Long-awaiting, the christening!

Arm-in-arm, the bride and grooms;

Their eyes ashine with neon light,

There she lays, her hair untied

Long and longing: the christening!

Long-forgetting, long-despising

Long-awaiting: the christening.


//

I started this poem a day after a night-out in Poblacion, Makati. My first visit was on my 22nd birthday, when I watched a group of black-topped young girls hand-in-hand with old foreigners. The street right outside the Filling Station is sexpat galore.