If I took a 60-minute video of your long walks
Just your feet shod or bare in the act of walking
On the red carpet in Los Angeles
On the cobblestones of Montmarte  
On the gravel of the Belvedere Gardens
On the powder-fine, sugar-colored sands of Boracay

If I took a closeup of your iris
Just macro-filming the universe in your eye
The fine lines that spread out like a web 
from your pupil
The catching of the light and its flickering 
The twitching and wobbling and quivering
The gradations of color and shades and hues

If I put a fan beneath a lightweight fabric
Just some mesh or a cheesecloth or voile
Let it take the shape of the wind
Let it dance like a zephyr
Let it move with the current
Let it mimic the grace of a jellyfish

If I walked around with a chalk in my hand
Just drawing a line across the walls as I pass
Across the stonewalls of Intramuros
Across the Lennon Wall in Prague
Across the clapboard houses in Connecticut
Across the HSBC glass building in Hong Kong

If I left my suitcase unattended
Just staying away enough to see what might happen
Hearts stop at La Guardia in New York
A man with a briefcase flees from it at Amsterdam Centraal
An old lady refuses to board the vaporetto in Venice
Security at NAIA terminal 3 are busy on their walkie-talkie

If any of these provoke a thought
Just as long as I have the confidence to pull it off
Do they make you wonder
Do they inspire a dream or a fear
Do they say anything about the life we live
Do they make you look inward to decide if they mean anything

If yes, then they are contemporary art, my dear.
[or so I think] —AA Patawaran

(This poem was originally published in 2015, upon the author’s return from the Biennale Arte 15, the 56th edition of the renowned international art exposition in Venice, Italy, to which the Philippines had returned after a 51-year hiatus.)