Upon Arrival in the Philippines
Bruce Parker
Little stories briefly arise
glimpses of lives lived within lamplit rooms
as a bus rolls through villages at night
and through its open windows come fragrances of frangipani
and alibangbang the passenger has never seen before and does not see now
where the bus passes dark fields burned to ready them for the next planting
and along the way there is a woman standing in a lighted room not looking out at the passing bus
turned from her window absorbed in her own life
and the passenger has a fleeting desire to know
the woman while the bus goes on inhaling
night air and the glimpses of life
in a foreign first night
of little stories.
inspired by Herbert Morris
Bruce Parker holds a BA in History from the University of Maryland Far East Division, Okinawa, Japan, and an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico. He has taught English as a second language, worked as a technical editor, and as a translator. He is an Assistant Editor at Boulevard and lives in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in The Inflectionist Review, Cloudbank, Blue Mountain Review, The RavensPerch, Hamilton Stone Review and elsewhere. A chapbook, Ramadan in Summer, is forthcoming.