GUHIT NG PALAD
Close to when everything began, a Chinese palmist read my fortune. Something drew me to her stand at the night market, the Hong Kong neon glow pushing back the stars. She took both my hands in her own and spoke, the man next to her an interpreter for us. She pressed the mounts, traced the folds, bent my fingers. Scratched my bracelet lines, slid fingers along the back and nails of mine. Under heaven’s wheel, I could feel the future laid out before me (though I immediately discounted the babies). There in another country, a traveller for a little while, an adventurer still uncowed, eager to know the world, her own terms.
Filipino idiom meaning fate; destiny (literally, line of palm)
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GASGÁS ANG BULSÁ
Slip your hand in the slit. It barely fits: a set of keys, a phone, a lipstick, a fist. No money here. No room for it. I dream of capacity, capaciousness, rapaciousness, infinity, make room for me and my paraphernalia, regalia, the size of Australia in my dresses and jeans. My skirts can take it. Hide my secrets from the hobble-de-hoy. Slap you away. Not today, mister patriarch. Not today.
Filipino idiom meaning spent heavily (literally, pocket is bruised)
Ah, these are so richly evocative, dramatic & generous, with a delightful ear for comedy & wonder – brilliant snippets of joy!