TWO DAYS AFTER THE MASSACRE

A ‘Top 10 Filipino Restaurants in Toronto’

article online was trending.

No one mentioned

the places in the piece

are mostly outside downtown,

instead, many shared

anecdotes of found family

in store owners

away from home.

Tastes of reprieve

from migration’s daily grind.

Most ignored his response, some said

he’s overthinking it, a few offered

prayers, even less said to choose

wisely for those registered in

absentee voting.

but a comrade wasn’t pulling any punches,

pointing out the obscenity

of the article coming out

two days after the massacre

of farmers begging for rice

in Kidapawan—

a reason many of us are here in the first place.

BATTLE OF IMAGINATIONS

I presume that’s his face on the cover,

though the silver print has been erased below his nose.

His name is larger on top,

Fighting in the Philippines is a subtitle.

He published his own works

with offices in London, Chicago, and New York.

Safe to assume

business of traveling images

was booming.

He describes a slaughter as great

even giving an estimate

of the corpses in the frame. No less than twenty.

The pictures need to be complimented

with captions to speak to an audience,

an execution is called wonderful in Santa Ana

He calls the natives Tagals

as they pile up after

a shower of American artillery.

Precise again, 38 bodies.

A studio picture, a Tagal maiden

pretty because she’s a Spanish half breed.

Tagged as representative to entice.

Downtime scenery are also included,

the brave Montana Battery Boys

having picnic outdoors,

beside a railway to Dagupan they secured.

I thought the aftermath of Bud Dajo

will also be here somewhere, recently

brandished for populist spectacle. Neely wasn’t alone

in the business of wonder,

hence the album begins claiming

Authentic Original Photographs

borne out of the battle of imaginations,

between a young nation and a young empire.

Eric Abalajon is currently a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo. Some of his works have appeared or are forthcoming in Revolt Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Ani, Katitikan, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, The Tiger Moth Review, Marias at Sampaguitas, and elsewhere. Under the pen name Jacob Laneria, his chapbook of short fiction Mga Migranteng Sandali (Kasingkasing Press, 2020) was included in CNN Philippines’ best Filipino books of 2020. He lives near Iloilo City.