A Poem by Jonel Abellanosa

Igloo Booth

Come in, sit.  To shut out applause
And fireworks, background music,
Close your eyes for ten seconds.
Steady your right hand over the tiger
Orchid as if anointing it with prayer.
There are no answers here, only herbs
To help you take which way when
You leave.  Now drop a ten-peso
Coin in the bowl.  If the koi glows neon
The mirror will show you your face
Twenty years hence, or else revisit
The cathedral where you speckled
Your wishes.  There are no more saints
On my altar, and hills have vanished
From the wall paper.  Another coin
And the flaming wick will whisper your
Heart's scents, how to mend if it's broken,
When to roll the dice.  You're here
Because you've noticed trees conversing,
Wind's starling murmuration weave,
Watersound's homage to pebbles.
You're here because you're no longer
Afraid clouds might find the moon and follow.
If you put your name in the guestbook
You'll see the forking path in your dream.

Jonel Abellanosa resides in Cebu City, the Philippines.  His poetry has appeared or will appear in numerous journals including Windhover, Dark Matter, Anglican Theological Review, Pedestal, Cha:  An Asian Literary Journal, The Lyric, Red River Review, Fox Chase Review, Poetry Quarterly, Barefoot Review, Ancient Paths, Star*Line, Inwood Indiana Press, Burning Word, Barefoot Review, Mobius Journal of Social Change, Liquid Imagination, Pyrokinection and Inkscrawl.  His chapbook Pictures of the Floating World is forthcoming from Kind of a Hurricane Press.  He is working on his first full-length collection, Multiverse.