Photographs are faces of lands
wearing masks,
this one begins with Barangay 160
in Caloocan unlearning the jargon of red hues
rain had come to erase.
One boy is dragged past narrow alleys,
offered to hold something, some pandesal
and a bag of salt. Then, loud sounds.
The sergeant’s colt-45 poised
atop his heart so eloquently, how a bag
of condiments can expose a white flag beneath.
Behind them, the dark sky expands with holes-
first the hole, then the reward.
—
Jaewon Chang is a high school junior living in the Philippines. His works have been recognized by the Scholastics Art and Writing awards on a national level and he is a Foyle Young Poet. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Cleaver Magazine, Austin International Poetry Festival Youth Anthology, National Poetry Writing Month Anthology (2020), Ilanot Review, Bitter Oleander Press, and elsewhere. During his free time, Jaewon enjoys traveling the city on foot.
Photography by: Joel Filipe
