LGBTQ+ Poem: YOU HAVE ME, SO WHAT, by Michael Balili

The sunflowers died of over-
watering. I remember

searching for love in all
the wrong places—

city halls, anime conventions,
jai alai matches, DND

sessions, but I am sure
I am Asia’s Warsaw

without you, yes,
a Manila. Dressed for

a call-center interview
with my smoothed NBI

clearance inside a clear
envelope, I commute.

In the afternoon, a downpour
sank half of the rotunda.

In my mind, you are tall
offering an umbrella

while I was eating pan de coco
sipping my coke in a plastic

bag. A black Mercedes
passes by & a deluge

of floodwater gets in our
mouth. Next year,

I will be promoted
to TL, while you change your mind

again & shift to Accounting.
We rent an apartment

by the LRT & collect
ugly dolls.

Javi, you make me feel things.
I’ve felt them before,

but feeling them again
makes me feel cute.

You don’t have to tell me
which rib to pluck

so I can suck myself.
I am on it.