Literary

A Tale of Two Food Stalls

A Tale of Two Food Stalls

EARLY in the morning, Tiya Sinang is already up and about in her carinderia. She ladles servings of various menu items onto plastic plates before handing them to customers with a smile. She is grateful. It was getting harder to keep her business afloat, much less pay her bills. Due…
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The Ghost of the Past

The Ghost of the Past

SMOKE and dust surround the street on afternoons. People talked either in hushed tones or with loud, boisterous voices. Even with heavy books in their bags, the children wore a smile as they journeyed back home. The smell of burning charcoal, fried oil, and an array of street food wafted…
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Alunsina: Live to Empower

Alunsina: Live to Empower

By ISABELL ANDREA M. PINE KNOWING one’s purpose in this world helps one change for the better. Performed in the Albertus Magnus building and produced by Mediartrix, Alunsina is a musical written by Rachel Hester and Marty Agustin and directed by Monica Divino. It retells the Visayan myth of Tungkung…
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An Impending Darkness

An Impending Darkness

AMID THE crowd, he begins to wonder to himself if these lost souls around him still believe in themselves. While walking, he sees a woman who seems to be around her forties who is with her daughter. The child looks up at him, and he smiles at her. They must…
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Born Beautiful: The Caprices of Identity

Born Beautiful: The Caprices of Identity

By ADRIAN PAUL L. TAÑEDO EVERY PERSON in the world possesses beauty and it is imperative that society respects the innate pulchritude that each individual holds; yet, there are also other kinds of aesthetics that different kinds of people appreciate. Some forms of beauty are peculiar and may seem uncanny to…
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Defying the Cosmos in Agnoia

Defying the Cosmos in Agnoia

By RYAN PIOLO U. VELUZ AMID the silent crowd, a voice of a yearning woman echoes. She is a mother conversing with her children to reconcile their shattered relationship with their patriarch before his pending demise. Meanwhile, another woman cries out her desire to achieve the totality of herself; a pressured…
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Spotlight

Spotlight

By IAN JOZEL N. JEREZ EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is one of the works in a five-part series in line with the Dapitan 2019 theme Insureksiyon. All works that are part of the series are written by the Flame’s Letters staffers. MY COUSIN told me she saw a man walking along the side of the road…
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Treasure Hunt

Treasure Hunt

I SELDOM come home to the province, but whenever I do, I always run to our garden to check if the gate of that house is unlocked: the home of my late aunt. I can still remember how I would always go to that house to visit her. She rarely…
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The Other

The Other

By MARIA PAMELA S. REYES EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is one of the works in a five-part series in line with the Dapitan 2019 theme Insureksiyon. All works that are part of the series are written by the Flame’s Letters staffers. THEIR STARES were everywhere. Accompanied by their rambunctious mouths, they followed my every move as…
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The Cure

The Cure

HE LOOKS on at the sheer number of devotees passing by. He does not join them; for now, he is content in being a bystander smoking a cigarette. Being a long-time smoker, he takes a long drag and feels the nicotine seep into his lungs. He wheezes. The release of…
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