Poetry by Nick Carbo

Many years ago the rainbow was as straight
as the horizon on the ocean. There had been a storm
that did not go away for three straight days.
The rainbow was forced to stay inside 
his large bamboo house all this time
and with his yellow feet he began to pace back 
and forth from the kitchen to the living room. 
"I'm going out for a walk," said
the rainbow to his wife. She put down her tea cup 
saying, "You can't go out there yet. The storm
is still running around in his gray clothes."
He replied, "If I see the storm waving his
tattered gray flags, I'll rush back home. But I bet you
he's already on his way to the other part 
of the island. Don't you remember,
I always like to take walks outside
after a storm." The rainbow took the trail
through the monkey forest, past the crocodile
lake, and up to the tarsier mountain where he could
see a quiet waterfall cascading down a cliff.
Suddenly he felt a slight breeze blow by 
his green ear and he realized it was the wife of the wind
whispering about how handsome he looked
in the sky, how he brought joy and color
to the world after the dark storm and horrible 
wind had passed. Even though he was married,
he let her explore his body some more.
As her swirling hand caressed 
the rainbow's orange chest, the lightning passed
overhead. He was on his way to visit his friend
the wind. When the lightning arrived in the house
of the wind, the wind said, "My wife can't bring out
refreshments because she is not here. Have you seen
her anywhere?" The lightning responded, "My friend,
I have to tell you I saw your wife entwined 
with the rainbow on the summit of tarsier mountain."
There was a sudden gust out the door and the wind found
his wife with her lips pursed blowing
warm air over the rainbow's red penis.
The wind worked himself up into a rage
and he picked up a mahogany tree and slammed
it on the blue back of the rainbow. Ever since
that incident, the rainbow has been bent over.
					

In the old days all the races lived
together and people did not have 
any noses. They breathed through 

two small holes in front of their faces. 
A boy named Totoy was playing 
with his friends and he fell on 

a puddle of mud. He tried to remove
the mud that clung to his face but 
the more he pulled, the more it stuck.

The mud also got longer as he pulled 
and by the end of the day everyone
in the village had tried to pull it off.

Weeks passed and people began
to notice Totoy. They said he was 
becoming more and more handsome.

They asked him how he got 
the lump of mud on his face.
Soon, up and down the rivers 

and up and down the shore line
people were throwing themselves 
into mud puddles face first.

But no matter how hard they tried,
they could not make the mud stick
on their faces. They just suffered


bruises and head aches.
One day Totoy's mother needed
some eggs for their meal

so she sent her son to the market
to buy three eggs. Totoy liked all
the attention he was getting 

and he purposely greeted
everyone he met so they would
say how nice he looked. 

He did not see a dip in the road,
again he fell flat on his face.
He looked down and saw his nose

had fallen off and cracked in half.
He tried to stick the mud back
on his face but it refused to stick.

He forgot all about his errand
for his mother and he ran behind
a tree to cry and cry. Every day

and every night Totoy prayed
that he could have the mud
stick to his face again.

One day a strange ship appeared
near Totoy's bustling village.
It was the first time that anyone 

had seen such a large a ship 
and they shot arrows at it and kept 
their distance. Everyone was


surprised when a loud voice came
from the ship saying, "Don't be
afraid to approach the ship.

It carries many noses like the one
Totoy lost when he fell on the road."
The villagers looked up at the ship

and looked closely at each other's 
faces and there was a mad scramble
to get to the ship. The ones who 

were taller and had longer legs reached
the ship first. These were the white,
black, and mestizo people. 

They got to pick the fresh noses 
from the top of the pile. The brown
and yellow people were smaller

and they lagged behind in the race.
When they got to the ship,
the only noses left were the ones

in the bottom of the pile
which were flattened 
and a little misshapen.

That's why some
Filipinos have 
flat noses.