October 2006
Home is a feeling again.
Heartfelt is unclichéd.
Bahay Kubo takes center stage.
“Hindi Kita Malilimutan”
In retrospect, becomes a heart song,
One more time, to a heart overflowing.
Rent souls overcame macho posturing.
Transparent tears became opaque drops
On dusty shoes high stepped
On the streets of Kansas City.
At 65, emotions are untamed. Unabashed,
They are unshamed.
Tears well too often; guilty!
Heart strings tugged, so many,
Heart to heart re felt, so heavy,
Bisig sa bisig
And blood sweat and tears,
Old struggles remembered;
Old clichés refreshed and unclichéd.
Faces are refaced,
Tears in the sun unfazed,
That certain feeling resurfaced,
One more time to overwhelm...
They are not friends, they are family;
Jun, Evelyn and Lara; imang Cit, Ditas and Rose;
Manang Shirley, Noy, the Boys and their families and Marmy;
Carmen and Angie; Nonong and Lillian;
Adel, Paul, Maggie, Sam, Cora and Paz;
Ping Bayani and the singing Sampaguitas,
Sinagtala (oh, the memories);
Tom and Son; Romy B.; Fe A. and friends dear
Who presently escape the memory.
Affinity by heart, affinity by blood Filipino shed,
Kundiman becomes that certain beat.
For, it is the pancit, adobo and rice,
The smoke of Eric’s and Herman’s lechon wafting back
From Wyandotte Lake, or was it Lake Jacomo.
(At 65, memories fail, sentimentally.)
The sinangag, tuyo, tapa and tosino; but then again,
It is also the pinakbet and bagoong, the sinigang and the asado,
Swope Park, the Starlight Theater, the Parkgate Apartments,
Meyer Boulevard, Main Street, the Plaza, Malvern Hill, Booth Street,
Rainbow Boulevard, Shawnee Mission, Overland Park, Quality Hill,
Crown Center, Dixon’s Chili, Mario’s Grinder, the Liberty Memorial,
The Nelson Art Gallery, Ward Parkway and Brush Creek.
It does take a village,
It takes this nayong Pilipino,
The Filipino Association of Greater Kansas City...
Home is a feeling again.
