By: April Mae Berza

For Koume, my cousin

My cousin is an anarcho-syndicalist
Who loves Dojacat but you told me
It is impossible. Politics is pretty
Music, I said. The world is full of wars.
I heard an infant sobbing from Gaza
Even if I’m miles away. I stared at the
Ceiling of my room trying to remember
All the lessons in history that are bound
To repeat itself, I hope my cousin leads
Our nation with democracy someday
For she knows the music of politics.

Maze with Dale

I read the libraries of his thoughts
There’s an endless maze of ideas,
I leafed through some old pages
Scanned and stared at a brilliant one;
What if there’s a mythology of mythologies
Hiding behind the canopy of one’s mind?
Chapters and chapters he shared
With me that I started to ponder:
Where have you been all along?

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April Mae M. Berza is the author of Confession ng isang Bob Ong Fan (Flipside, 2014) and Berso de Berza (Charging Ram, 2012.) Her poems and short stories appeared in numerous publications in America, France, Canada, Belgium, Romania, India, Japan, Great Britain, and the Philippines. Her poems are translated into Crimean Tatar and Filipino. Some of her poems are published in the Philippines Graphic Reader, Liwayway, Belleville Park Pages, Haiku Journal, The Siren, Poetica, Three Line Poetry, Calliope, Maganda, Metric Conversions, Ani, The Manila Times, Letters to my Bully, Remembering Rizal, Voices from the Diaspora, Madswirl, The Stardust Gazette, The Riveter Review, Asahi Haikuist Network, Contemporary Verse 2, and elsewhere.