PATINTERO: REMEMBERING INDAY

PATINTERO

(For my dear Sister, Brenda Teodora Casuga-Maglaya+)

How do I best remember you, hermanita?

That father would call you princesita mia

after a swig of Domecq and sarsaparilla? 

You were not one to get excited by these,

nor would you bat an eyelash; you’d jump

off his lap and call out to me: “ ‘manong! 

                   That was always my cue for another game

                   of patintero under the lone lamp on our

                   camino; your sad eyes lit up, you’d smile. 

                   The smile you bravely left me when you

                   hugged me from your sick bed, was your

                   own smile, nobody else’s. I will not forget. 

--- Albert B. Casuga
11-03-11