Multiple choice love poem

by March Abuyuan-Llanes

Please shade the correct answer. 

You are:

a)  At midnight, / a quiet stroll / in my singleplayer / Minecraft world– // The way home / from the mine / I've spent pickaxes and in-game nights / digging / &digging / in search for diamonds. // Silently, / I grapevine / through my trail of torches / in the dark, / back home to the jungle biome / I spent / even longer in search for / like Moses in the desert, / (The closest / I can get to home / irl–) // Homewards / to X 1421 Z 1209, // My footsteps softly / on grass blocks / &gravel; // Of every creeper / &enderman / too far / from render distance, / A whisper– // Homewards / to my bahay na bato / left forever unfinished / amongst the jungle trees and bamboo– // My love, / I have no diamonds yet, / but I've promised you / I will. // Homewards,

b)  Sometime / between Christmas and New Year: // the church in Candon: // The Iglesia Parroquial ti San Juan de Sahagún, // a Baroque parish in the heart of the town / my Lola grew up in as a little girl– // Still beautiful &standing / even after 328 years / &earthquake / after earthquake. // At my family's reunion, / I understand enough Ilocano / to know / that when my Lola's brother says / my name, / he means bakla, / and enough / about the world to know / that the way / he looks at me is meant to spell / disappointment. // So I slip out of sight: // through the tables / dressed like a disappointment, / past the videoke machine, / and past the caterers / who also happen / to be disappointments like me. // The only way / my feet will take me / is towards / the church, / so I let them; // and when I see it / like a great stone face in the moonlight / I think about everything else in the world / instead. // I understand enough Ilocano / to know / that I've walked in / towards the end / of mass, // enough / to hear more sounds / than words, / &realize / What a beautiful language it is, // and enough / to know / that despite everything, / if you love me / &vice versa / then I too / am beloved / by God, // Amen. 

c)  An exoplanet / within me / that astronomers have named / but will never visit / in a million years / yet dream to. // A super-Earth even bigger than Jupiter, / and habitable, too: // with rivers seventy times wider / than the Cagayan / and wildflowers bigger / than a bilao. // This planet / has a sun / that bathes everything / in pink / when it sets, // and at night, / two moons / always dancing in the sky. // I wonder / if there are people / on this planet, / as well; // What luminaries &constellations / they have honored / in their Heavens / to measure / their fates–

d)  Every single bus and road / from here / to Cavite– // The ones named after flowers, / the ones named after saints, / the ones named after colonizers, / &the ones named after heroes, / (revolutionary or otherwise)– // At Lawton, / You / are the memory / of the Post Office / yet untouched / by the conspiracy / of arson, // Every petal / in the wind / of the fire trees / in bloom. // On the bus, / You / are the strip / of sun / taking the window seat / I heel-and-toe to / and take / as well, // The vendor / intoning his wares / of mani / &kasuy / 10 kilometers in. // In the window, / You / are the mangroves drowning / to my right / &the city burning / like a dream / to my left. // My love, / They say / that all roads / lead to Cubao, / while all my roads / lead / to you. // I tell you / once I'm near Dasma, / but when you're pressed / against me, / I'm still / never near / enough.

e)  All of the above, // every poem / I will ever write, / and every choice / I could ever / make.

March Abuyuan-Llanes is a militanteng bakla and self-taught 20-year-old writer from Quezon City, Philippines. Fixated on contradiction, locality, and the occult, they write poetry about death/desire, imperialism, and gender. They have work in surfaces.cx, Olney Magazine, Haluhalo Journal, and elsewhere. They are the editor of LIGÁW anthology, an anthology zine of militant poetry from emerging LGBTQ+ Filipino writers, and are a founding member of Kinaiya: Kolektib ng mga LGBTQIA+ na Manunulat. After the revolution, they dream of one day playing a Vivaldi recorder concerto for their friends. You may follow them on Twitter and Instagram @magmartsa and find more of their work on magmartsa.neocities.org/writing.html.