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Skookum

NOT so spry and sprite fast enough, past caught up with him— nightmare began, past turned up as pest.

Parang pasakalyeng palpak sa Olympic Games, they were carrying a torch for each other down the years… that torch ought to have burnt down to a stub if held that long, could have caused second-degree burns, why, it should have been passed to other runners but they didn’t. As lunatics are committed to insane asylums, the pair of parental consenting adults went through with their commitment… and committed… ah, pleasurable sins of commission and emission.

So here’s to waking up from the wrong side of the bed, maybe quaking off on the wrong bed and walking out on history—past can be pesky and bed and board for one’s sanity.

Let history indict and judge, offer every lesson, not lessen us.

Uulitin ko lang po, history is done and we’re done with it… destiny is what’s to be done and we’re doing it.

Alak pa para sa maliyab na pagsalubong sa hinaharap— talagang masarap ang mga pusikit sa karimlang hinaharap ng marami pang dilag na magiging kaliyab!

Hinahabol din ng nakaraan ang inyong imbing lingkod—paternity suits give me the creeps—kaya kailangan pang maging matulin ang matulis.

Isang makupad na katoto ang inabot ng lumipas na lipos sa sweet infantile memories… sadsad na sa takbo, nostalgia turned neuralgia, nakalingkis na bigat-linta pa ang dala-dala niya, tsk-tsk-tsk… uh, that’s the same sound a rider plies to goad a work horse to move on.

Sure, deja view appears endearingly dulcet… you can lose your head, lose sight of what’s ahead. End up lost.

Ano ba, Jena, babalik ako sa opisina sa Makati… I won’t be as argumentative, will just go for the jocular to keep y’all in stitches, or get your girls without a stitch on, mwa-ha-ha-haw!

Uh, I’ve dug up this morning a fond memory of a dish from the past… a commonplace food fare for poor folks… paksiw na ayungin, lukaok o likaok— dainty silver perch which can only thrive in unpolluted freshwater lakes and rivers simmered slow in a broth of palm vinegar, on a bed of bruised fresh mustard leaves, freshly cracked peppercorns, crushed garlic, ginger and rock salt to taste.

Silver perch of subtly sweetish flesh so abounding these days as hen’s teeth, frog feathers and pristine bodies of freshwater…

The poor man’s food fare has turned into a luxury… it cost me but this is a morsel of nostalgia that one can bite into, chew off without getting chewed up.

Mas masaya namang lantakan ‘yung tamis-linamnam na, may asim pa.

Hindi kasi napapanis ang recipe… pero kahit luto ng diyos, napapanis.

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