Footnote to a Sunday Psalm

 

 I know you made the growth, lord, from 

which we weave these sheets

 to make our beds, and the petalry which we

 crush and  let alone to bleed, to trap

 perfume, yes and the oak and shore

 and most good things, and even perhaps

 our meeting there last monday in the 

wind, and the dirty book i caught her

 with. did you make the cats she owns? 

one of them bites, you know, and i 

felt like kicking it and I really did 

while she was out riding one of your

 horses. and i know you made her, made

 her with her dewy eyes and clasp and

 hair, made her as you wove satin and 

the shade. god, you are the greatest. 

had you added one last stroke, you 

would have had a sly and savage peer. 

 Sands & Coral 1966

David C. Martinez 1967 Co-editor David C. Martinez was born in Dumaguete City and earned his undergraduate degree from Foundation University.Teaching English ,Literature and Social Sciences in his alma Mater St. Paul University Dumaguete City. Soon after, he entered Silliman University law school, where he distinguished himself as a debater winning gold medals at national collegiate debate competitions. He also wrote poems, essays and short stories which were published in the Philippine Free Press and Weekly Graphic between 1964 to 1971. As a vocal political activist during the early years of Martial Law, he was briefly detained by the military and eventually resettled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in California USA, where his family has resided since 1974. He edited the Asian American News in Los Angeles in 1979. Martinez was a double winner in the 1997 Carlos Palanca Award for Literature (English Division) with his “The Amulet” garnering First Prize in the Short Story Category and “Shadow on the Sun” garnering Second Prize in the Poetry Category. His book A Country of Our Own: Partitioning the Philippines was published in 2002 by Daykeeper Press and in 2004 by Bisaya Books.