Cruz, Conchitina R. "Problem Is."

They say poor Filipinos multiply
like rabbits since they have nothing
to do but fuck. Living in houses with room


only for the inevitable brush
of the hand against the buttock in between
chores, on the way to switch

channels to the daily noontime show, 

No money and little space 

lead to nowhere 

but to coupling. We used to joke 

and call our selves typical Filipinos, 

broke and empty-handed, 

when all we did was touch, and for all 

The movies we missed, fancy dinners 

we didn't have, books we borrowed 

but never owned, 

We're compensated

by making love. 

You told me not to worry, 

That one day the worst 

would end, just a couple of right 

moves and it would be over. 

Should I have told you then 

we'd never been better, 

should I have told you then 

to hold your tongue, but we had 

no room for such words. 

We were rabbits, 

Seeking the other side, bent on 

Crossing the pasture.
- Conchitina R. Cruz

Conchitina R. Cruz

Conchitina "Chingbee" T. Cruz is a Filipina poet who teaches creative writer and comparative literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Quezon City. Formerly an INTARMED student, Cruz shifted to the University of the Philippines' Creative Writing program, from which she graduated magna laude and College of Arts and Letters valedictorian in 1998. While on a Fulbright grant, she studied and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received her MFA in Writing. She obtained her PhD in English from SUNY Albany.