WAYS OF

DYING
BY: ANTHONY L. TAN
WHICHEVER WAY THE WIND BLOWS
THEY FALL WITH THE FLOWERS
EVER SO GENTLY, SHAKEN DOWN FROM TWIGS.
THEY FALL ON THE SUMMER STREET
WHERE THEY ARE TRAPPED IN TIRE RUTS
AND THEY BECOME BROWN PASTE,
SPOILING THE BLACKNESS OF TAR.
OTHERS FALL WITH THE FLOWERS
ON THE LEAF-MATTED LAWN
WHERE CHICKENS FEED ALL DAY
OTHERS ON THE ROOF OF AN OLD HOUSE
WHOSE DARK CORNERS FINALLY BECOME
A REFUGE.
THROUGH NOOKS AND CRANNIES THEY CRAWL
THEIR WAY INTO THE DARK ROOMS,
ELICITING SHRIEKS FROM THE VIRGINS
WHO IN FRIGHT AMBUSH THEM
WITH BROOM, FIRE OR CANDLE WAX
THE FEW SURVIVORS GO ON THEIR WAY,
FINDING THEIR NICHES IN EMPTY CANS,
BEHIND BOXES AND UNCOVERED GLASSES.
THEY GROW WINGS IN THE DARK
AND VINDICATE THEIR PRECARIOUS TREK
WITH A RATTLE AGAINST THE LAMPSHADE.
IN A NIGHT OR TWO THEY DIE,BUT THEY MUST
DIE IN A WAY PROPER TO THEIR IMPORTANCE
AS SURVIVORS:
THEIR MOTTLED WINGS OUTSPREAD
IN A BEAUTIFUL FALL.
AUTHOR
ANTHONY L TAN was born in Siasi, Sulu, on 26 August
1947 to Utoh Hotiong Tan and Kimchu Lu, both of
Chinese Sama descent. He is the fifth of ten children.
He earned his BA English from the Ateneo de
Zamboanga in 1968 and went on to Silliman University
in Dumaguete City for both his MA Creative Writing
(1975) and PHD. British Literature (1982). For more
than a decade he taught at the English Department of
Silliman University and was a regular member of the
panel of critics at the Silliman National Summer
Writers Workshop. In 1983, he joined the faculty of the
English Department at MSU-Iligan Institute of
Technology and became one of its chairpersons in
1984-85.
AUTHOR
Together with Jaime An Lim and Christine Godinez
Ortega, he helped organize the first Iligan National
Writers Workshop/Literature Teachers Conference in
1993. He retired from teaching in 2012. He has won a
number of awards for his writings, among them the
Focus Philippines award for poetry, the Palanca 1st
prize for “Poems for Muddas” (1993) and another
Palanca for the essay. His poems and stories have
been published locally and abroad, more prominently
in the prestigious Atlanta Review and Manoa, the
literary journal at the University of Hawaii.
AUTHOR

Other Works:
1. The other bank
2. Apparition3. Wind
4. Oldness5. Boatman