Vicarious Experience Poem by Cheryl L. DaytecYañgot

(While Watching Coffee Prince*)

She feels love in just a touch, in every stare
Even in every thought of the woman and man

The pirated digital video disk gets stuck-
She ran it, ran it so many, many times-
The image of the lovers sharing a smile
Is frozen like a large colorful still picture
Slowly, she shuts her eyes, sees beyond
Derision has been disguising as laughter
The silence between has become too wide
Arresting the space for hope, second chances
Absence no longer makes the heart yearn
It gives breathing space a lease in solitude
The door opens, a figure dominates the room
She pushes the remote control’s power button
The television screen turns deathly black
He need not know that her hollow, prosaic life
Draws color and joy from a television screen.

She remembers how much they had and lost
These days, his baritone voice comes shadowed
On the air, overwhelmed by his betrayals
The lies in his words obscure his messages
Her memories of their good times mingle
Drearily with thick smoke masking his figure
As, like a tourist in a crowded shopping mall,
He passes her by nay a stare, nay a word
Till his figure disappears behind a narra door
Now a complete stranger in her pallid world
Like a weary traveler frantic for a dropp of water,
She pushes a button; the television comes to life
For some tangled moment, she loses herself
In a certain world once his and hers, once theirs
Secretly, she gaily basks in its luster and light

Hoping they will go back to that place
Hoping it will endure for others, at least.

*Korean telenovela that became very popular in the Philippines.