Recenter Press
  • About
  • Books
    • Rest of US by Richard Hamilton
    • evening primroses by Emma Loomis-Amrhein
    • Profit | Prophet by Patrick Blagrave
    • To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart by Schuyler Peck
    • The Good House & The Bad House by Doe Parker
    • The Road Is Long & Beautiful by Terra Oliveira
    • And Still To Sleep by Terra Oliveira
    • An Old Blue Light by Terra Oliveira
    • Processes: A Meditation by Terra Oliveira
  • Journal
    • Issue Four: Fall 2020
    • Issue Three: Spring 2020
    • Issue Two: Fall 2019
    • Issue One: Spring 2019
  • Interviews

Praxis

BY ELIZABETH RUTH DEYRO.


Marbled floors are just as filthy as grease-
kissed pavements when its shine is covered

with this thick coat of scarlet. We know
that silence often weighs the same as murder,

the glimmer of glossy                 paper doesn’t hide the blood
stain on this fifty-thousand peso designer dress.

I confess that prestige does come
with a pretty face, golden contour

against cotton candy pink cheeks                 hemoglobin shades of MAC
on puckered lips                 hair dyed with the same scarlet tones left

in the crime scene. Eyelash curled like bodies
before they take their last breaths                 after the frame-up:

every man from the slums are goats,
said the boys in blue, bloated from white crystals.

Diamond-ringed fingers always pointing
where they cast shadows, never afraid of missing the shot

with registered guns and flossed baby teeth as bullets.
I loved the taste of five-minute fame rotting                 on the sides,

watching thumbs turn into legions, claps into static.
But when the radios went down,

all I heard was the sound of jagged breath
before the trigger was pulled. Its mouth against my head, it tells me
​
that it is bound to fire when I stop                 hitting the keys,
and yet

Elizabeth Ruth Deyro is a Filipino cultural and literary editor, journalist, poet, and socialist feminist. Her journalistic practice focuses on human rights, social justice, and Southeast Asian culture, with bylines in Philippine Star, CNN Philippines, Rappler, and Art+ Magazine, among others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have appeared in literary journals such as The Philippines Graphic, Rust + Moth, Hypertrophic Literary, Ache Magazine, Porridge Magazine, and The Poetry Annals. Her poetry delves into the realities of the female experience as a native Filipino woman, shedding light on the endured violence, misogyny, and stigma both as an individual and systemic struggle. She currently volunteers at independent feminist publishing collective Gantala Press and grassroots organization Gabriela Southern Tagalog, and works as a journal editor and columnist at the Half Mystic Journal. Find her on Twitter at  @elizabethdeyro.
  • About
  • Books
    • Rest of US by Richard Hamilton
    • evening primroses by Emma Loomis-Amrhein
    • Profit | Prophet by Patrick Blagrave
    • To Hold Your Moss-Covered Heart by Schuyler Peck
    • The Good House & The Bad House by Doe Parker
    • The Road Is Long & Beautiful by Terra Oliveira
    • And Still To Sleep by Terra Oliveira
    • An Old Blue Light by Terra Oliveira
    • Processes: A Meditation by Terra Oliveira
  • Journal
    • Issue Four: Fall 2020
    • Issue Three: Spring 2020
    • Issue Two: Fall 2019
    • Issue One: Spring 2019
  • Interviews