Maligayang Pasko Addressed Abroad

“Tell me what you’re up to, what books you’re reading, what films you’ve seen. Given up snow?”
A letter by Juan addressed to Pablo, from Pedro Almodovar’s La Ley Del Deseo (1987)

The distance / between your city / and my city
is an assault to me / in the new whisper
of the season / winter will be four / airplane
rides away / snowflakes / fall on your shoulders
like monosyllables / in an urn
your mode of hurt: / frostbite / to my sunburn
English / a Rubik’s Cube I turn / and I turn and I turn
in my mouth / to land the right line
but where you are / English / is a doorknob
it is November / the child Jesus / everywhere
and my longing hangs / in the air / slick
like sticky jewels / tell me who you are
is not how you speak yet / that the letter R / is still an avalanche
of rough / when you say it / your tongue still
crowing / like money inside / every cockfighter’s
changing hands / tell me you still have meals
with rice / slip out of your sneakers / on every doorway
please, tell me / when are you giving up / snow?
I’ll be in California / this December / there’s a joke / that I remember
my old boss / used to tell me / The Bay Area might as well
be Manila / its shipyard size / of Filipinos / who won’t forget
themselves / when they gaze upon / city waters
I stoop over / my phone to look / at this photo of you / in the snow
and you eddy me / the summer / no longer.

Justin Andrew Cruzana is a poetry editor for HaluHalo Journal. He lives in the Philippines.