zero-byte love
tricks with bytes and pixels,
deftness with keyboards,
and wizardry with codes fail
to make roses prick flesh with their thorns
and please noses with their fragrance.
nor can digital sorcery make
love notes tangible unless they are
set on cards with paper and ink.
love is amorphous at times,
but it needs the sweet air of words to breathe,
the thrill of skin upon skin to bloom.
love does not just stir
to the bite of bytes.
-Prospero Pulma, Jr.
Philippine Panorama
February 17, 2019
fiction and poetry 