Jonel Abellanosa- Two Poems

To My Tooth

 

I wondered why you were so sensitive

To the hot and the cold.  I probed, feeling

No prick.  No matter how much I peered

No hole reflected, enamel yellowed

But the crown intact. 

 

X-ray showed cavity hidden proximally,

Concealed by another tooth.  The doctor worried

Over blood pressure, blood sugar,

Prothrombin, bleeding and clotting times

But chronic ache makes anyone say anything.

 

I keep you wrapped in a blood-smeared white cloth.

I might eat comfortably and sleep soundlessly again

But you’ll remind me how expertly pain carved

Your side, how it fooled toothpicks, the mirror,

My linear, see-to-believe mind. 

 

 

 

Mind and Body

 

The uphill climb circulates strength:

Pedals, front and rear derailleur

Conveying chain energy honing

Through sprocket wheel and cluster,

Tension and jockey roller, recycling.

 

Downhill, speed lifts weight to the wind

Carrying these health worries away,

Light-whiting heat sweeping the eye’s ways. 

Rush humming my skin, blue

Sky whispering, comet, kin.

 

 

 

Short Bio: Jonel Abellanosa resides in Cebu City, the Philippines.  His poetry is forthcoming in Anglican Theological Review, Pyrokinection, Ancient Paths, Inkscrawl, and has appeared in Windhover, The Lyric, PEN Peace Mindanao anthology, Star*Line, Liquid Imagination, Mobius Journal of Social Change, Inwood Indiana Press, Jellyfish Whispers, Golden Lantern, Poetry Quarterly, New Verse News, Qarrtsiluni, Anak Sastra: Stories for Southeast Asia, Fox Chase Review, Burning Word, Barefoot Review, Red River Review, Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic.  He is working on his first poetry collection, Multiverse.