Wednesday In Barangay Dos Poem by RIC BASTASA

it is early morning
on a Wednesday
and here the streets
are empty

the priest is on quarantine
and women whose lives
want meaning
are forced to stay and
cook and sew and tend
the garden

rainy day here and the
streets are empty
vendors are out on an
ordinance prohibition

my white dogs stays beside
the butcher
waiting for a meat share

Wednesday and the street
is empty
hollow lives and scared birds
migrating to another country