RIC S. BASTASA

THE boatman says we will be here only for a short while
why? because this island of Lilitao shall soon disappear

we are not scared we think that the boatman is just joking
and so we take time stepping upon the golden sands

pit-patted on its green blue waters
wading our bodies feeling the salt and silt in our hands

soon, a huge cloud comes, bringing with it the rain and thunder
and then it becomes dark and the boatman serious as a man with the hood

of death signaled that we must rush to the boat at once and save ourselves
for indeed the island as predicted disappeared

the sea has swallowed it, but as the boatman says,
in the next hour, it too shall spit it out.