i.
On our worst days,
we would still kiss

find ourselves too lost
in each other’s dark alleys
to remember the color
of our country homes

and their hate speech.

ii.
Before Sabbath,
we were holier
than most preachers
more law-abiding
than a few good lobbyists
but our kindness
was not meant
to be popular
much like
our private library –
loud only when we chose
to be empowered by literature.

iii.
In the darkness
of the fuschia scent
of a hundred dying flowers,
we felt we were travelling poets
who had come home.

© Geraldine Fernandez

Geraldine Fernandez (Dray) is a graduate of Bachelor in Secondary Education Major in English, and now a starving law student and mental health advocate from the Philippines. Her poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Isacoustic*, Anti-Heroin Chic, Eunoia Review, Punch Drunk Press, Rigorous , ALPAS Journal, Selah Magazine, Chicago Memoryhouse Magazine, among other journals. She posts daily creative practice and mental health issues at :

https://instagram.com/gdraylovesgritty
Website: https://julythirteen.weebly.com/