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Poetry

Night Walkers

To appease the women, 
the government decided 
all men should stay at home at night. 

Nights are for sisterhood. 
Nights are for our bar hopping, 
tequila after tequila – shot after shot
until we forget the whole world. 
Nights are for us, child-bearing people
who forget ourselves just to please all. 
Nights are for all the hobbies we missed: 
book after book, painting after painting, 
film after film. 
Nights are for us, daughters of the moon. 

I watch my husband sleep soundly
before I leave to wander the streets. 
No one catcalls. No one is asking for my phone number. 
No man says I am a whore. 
Tonight, I walk free and alone. 

When I go home, he asks me. 
“How’s the moon?” 
And I say, 
“Even more beautiful.”


This literary piece is part of Katitikan Issue 3: (Re) Imaginations.

By Rochelle Ann Molina

Rochelle Ann T. Molina is a writer who hails from Catanduanes, Philippines. She graduated Cum Laude from University of the Philippines Los Baños with a degree in BA Communication Arts Major in Writing. She became a fellow for Poetry during the Palihang Rogelio Sicat 2019. She was a panelist for Bikol Literature during the Taboan Writers Festival 2019. Her works have appeared in Philippines Graphic, The Manila Times- The Sunday Times Magazine, Peculiars Magazine, and Reclaim: An Anthology of Women’s Poetry, among others.

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