Andrieu Guilas (he/him) is an undergraduate student of the Creative Writing program of the University of the Philippines Diliman, with academic and creative interests in gender and ecocritical studies. He is a former officer of the UP Writers Club and served as a campus journalist for his college's student publication. He also enjoys playing video games and listening to music.
I argue brazenly That to go away with adverbs Is a foolish act. No craft guide can say To temper one’s complexities Because how do we Explain in confidence, the motion of fish in the sky Or tulip petals on lava? Or a hillside’s mourning The moment its princess passed Along the moon’s veneer How do we say that we Mean more than ‘to say’ That we speak with clarity To differentiate from hesitation? That we speak with disdain To not mean motivation? That we speak with gentleness And also harshness; how do we say We go above and beyond? Because our glitter means excess. In our effort, in our love; that sometimes We have size beyond smallness And when we think small anyway, We are cutely small, fearlessly small In that we are big hearts, young minds. How do we declare if we only say. How do I say I cried with the fewest tears That my sadness is in the degree The same way my joy Bore fruit that fed many How can I articulate that I Whispered lovingly, Screamed desperately, Moaned passionately For everything we exasperate Has words intangible to an English psyche that sometimes We need novel oppositions, Or a complicated string of syntax, Or same-sex word pairings. I am a Filipino and I need my adverbs My words are in love, And they need their bridesmaids.