I dance like clockwork.
It happens every year, twice or thrice when my food is gone.
Wait.
You may ask what I eat? What would satisfy me if not the pale moon? There are things above the heavens that are wondrous and horrible to the eyes of man.
There are the burulakaw dancing with the stars, sending the messages of the gods. There are the children of Ulilangkalulua trying to make the heavens their own. There is the dragon in the sky, awaiting the end of days.
There are more things in heaven and earth than you could ever imagine.
So I sit here and wait.
There are moments where I look through the blue haze of my home, wondering if there is more to life than obeying the primal course of nature, if there is anything more than hunger and pain and food and satisfaction.
But then I see my prize and my belly growls. It’s hard to think when you’re hungry.
So I dance the dance that I have since time immemorial, the moon is my prize, the music my enemy. I get nothing more than a brief taste before the dance begins again, the moon, the bird and the music.
Someday, I will finally get my prize and when that day comes; my hunger will be satiated.
That is, until my belly growls again.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by the Baua entry in Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology. Ramos. 1971.
Baua Illustration by NightmareSyrup
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