“At night, touching himself, he would imagine her in every carnal detail, always determined he would see her at last, on Erzèbet Square, but always, once he was done, he would be consumed by guilt, which would not replace the fantasy, only dissipate it, and he would decide she was just an itch he could scratch away so easily without harming her or himself.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“Once the libido was satisfied, humanity would flood back into the bloodstream and guilt, shame, and regret would usually flow throughout the being, replacing the lust, the lecherous desire, the maniacal impulses that had found their way out of the system through orgasm.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“It was then that it dawned on my great-great-great-great-grandmother that Avenida in Santa Cruz—with all its dark, dank, dreary alleyways, its patchwork of cheap cement, cheaper wood, and even cheaper corrugated iron that passed for houses, its ground littered with all sorts of scrap, including crumbs of goodies and morsels of meals to which they were never invited, its all-present humidity and intermittent rain, all its mud and flood on rainy days and all its dust on dry days, all its dirt, all its noise, and all the cruelty and fear and abomination and prejudice—was paradise.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“The Nameless, Manila, Filipino, Philippines, speculative fiction, short story, diaspora”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, according to Charles Dickens in whose nest of words I grew up, and so, as rain filled the drains, flooded the streets, inundated the city, my great-great-great-great-grandmother and her community were driven skyward, gasping for air from the underworld.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“Like flowers bursting out of buds, more of life returns and I believe more danger awaits us. But such is the nature of our life. Danger is nothing new to us. It’s a part of what we face in the day-to-day, no stranger than eating or mating or being born.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“If I were poor, I’d have more use in this world.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“I hate it when they mistake poverty for lack of character.”
Source: Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official
“Medveten tystnad ger orden mening.”
Source: Världsviking: Gudomlig Poesi
“I will find comfort in the rhythm of the sea.”