madcaplitmag

The cars
bead
and necklace
as they
race
in strange
staccato
along
the onyx lanes of
Taft Avenue.
They
constellate
from end
to end,
relentless
in their
beading
and necklacing,
from dusk
till dawn,
night after
night,
raging
a constant,
gallant
defiance—
despite
God’s,
firm
grip
on the
unspooling
dark.

HEZEKIAH LOUIE R. ZARASPE, 29, teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). He holds a Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from UST. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in English and Filipino have been featured or are forthcoming in INQUIRER.net, Rappler, Liwayway Magazine, and Locked Down, Lit Up: An Anthology of Creative Work in a Time of Quarantine (UP Press), among others. He is an alum of the 2022 UST National Writers’ Workshop.