Seated on the sand, music from the inside made into an echo, lights from the fishing boats appear like stars making it hard to tell where the water ends and sky begins and with every wave as if the night reaches for our toes. Early morning fishing was compelling even without liquor in our veins.
I spent four years there but this moment gives off the most warmth in recent lakeside winter evenings, without waves, silence now complete. It is still nostalgia, if I don’t want to go back?
Eric Abalajon is currently a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo. Some of his works have appeared in Revolt Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Ani, and Katitikan. Under the pen name Jacob Laneria, his zine of short fiction, Mga Migranteng Sandali, is distributed by Kasingkasing Press. He lives near Iloilo City.