Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr. considers himself the official spiritual advisor of his roommates, Gordot and Dwight—the first a goldfish, the other a Turkish Van cat. His works have been published in The Poetry Magazine, Moria Poetry Journal, Fogged Clarity, Everyday Poem, Loch Raven Review, The Buddhist Poetry Review, The Philippines Free Press, Troubadour 21, Full of Crow, Indigo Rising, Asia Writes, Triggerfish Critical Review, Troubadors 21, Gloom Cupboard, TAYO, Haggard & Halloo, and elsewhere. His first book, A Fistful of Moonbeams, was published by Kilmog Press in April 2010. His second book, Kleenex Theory, was published in 2015. He is busy anthologizing emptiness and boredom at the moment.

Rm 403-A

This is the way white will never be the same
To me—the way white walls, white steel bed,
Lilliums, heliotropes in ash-blue vases connive
To hide the gossamer veil between here
And there, where she lies cold and pallid
Knowing yet half-dead like limestone
Statues guarding graveyard gates —
(Even angels mourn in stark silence
Under the crust of powder and dust)
What demon has subdued this woman
Into a placid ocean of conformations,
Her eyes into dimming lighthouses?