Philippine literature, The Widow by Lourdes H. Vidal

The Widow

by Lourdes H. Vidal

Lourdes H. Vidal Region 3 – Pampanga Vidal writes in three languages: Kapangpangan, Tagalog, and English. She taught in the English and Filipino departments of the Ateneo de Manila University. She has a collection of her own poems, entitles Uttirly Woman (1993). She has lately been writing "alternative romances" in Filipino.

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My Husband left me
He ran out abruptly
Upsetting everything
In our little hut.

Now I sit alone
With no work left
But a flood of quivering threads,
Tangled together
Like a weaving loom,
Widow: Why have you left me?
Things do not seem right
here in our little home.

Carefully in my mind
I must raise the loom,
Arrange each single thread
And silently work
On a changing pattern
Of circles and squares
That seem alike.

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