Remnants ***** Carigara At Night Boulevard Poem by Rommel Mark Dominguez Marchan

(Leyte, May 2000 with Uncle Raul Abarca Darantinao)

I’m here
At sea-walled bench
9: 45 pm and the quarter moon
Gleams below the star-sprinkled sky
Gazing down Waray-waray longest wharf
Stretching from wet-dry market to the fishers
Light tantalizing at the distant

Then uncle Raul approaches me
Unnoticed from nowhere

Sharing stories about this
Place where my Mama called
Once home

It’s been a long long time ago
But he can still remember