Pandora’s Box
Do you believe in ghosts? She was mine.
I remember the secret she whispered into my ear
while we jumped on puddles wetting the hems of our skirts.
I remember picking tiny santan flowers
and touching the petals to my tongue.
I remember side eyes, back talk,
three-way calls that broke into static.
I remember the sour puckering my mouth
when I first tasted the santol’s brown flesh.
I remember how her words
blurred under my fingers.
I remember sharing a spoon and fork between us.
I remember the first insult, the last kiss.
There’s a thin line between love and hate.
Pandora closes the lid, turns the key in the lock
and swallows it whole.
Christine Fojas is a Filipino-Canadian hailing from Las Piñas City and currently living in Metro Vancouver. She has a BA in Comparative Literature from University of the Philippines and works as a library technician at Douglas College. A list of her publications can be found at her website. She is also on Twitter as @chrisfojas.