Haiku Poem | Cat

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Black cat wide eyes

Not meowing

- Is a neck pillow

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Short Story | Lamp And Shower

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Note: As part of our writing assignment for Week 13: Character "Flaws," How Characters See Their World, my professor, who had us read Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage's short story "King Cole's American Salvage," instructed us to write a story based on it. Below is the full instruction from my professor, copy-pasted:

Due before class next Monday, May 3. Please, read carefully the Bonnie Jo Campbell story, "King Cole's American Salvage." Briefly, answer one question: why are you, or why are you not able to feel compassion for this man who has committed such a violent act? Then write a 1-page scene of the trial, using setting details and specific details, but from the first-person point-of-view of King Cole, the man who was so badly injured in the attack. Try to capture his consciousness, his mind, his voice, his memory, his way of thinking. The scene should flash back and forth between his recent past and the trial itself, as he struggles to remember all that's happened.   

Later on, my professor said to write about any of the characters. 

The use of names, location names, etc. from "King Cole's American Salvage" is only for the assignment above. No copyright infringement intended.

    Wanda's unfocused eyes flickered, and with a start, she pushed herself from the unmade bed, but pain shot through her skull, banging loudly like a hammer on a nail, and her waist, throbbing like an irregular heart rate after she drank too much coffee. It fucking hurts. She inhaled the stale air deeply and sucked in the odor of last night's activities. When she got her equilibrium back, Wanda scanned the quiet room, her and Slocum's strewn clothes were on the floor, hanging by the ceiling fan, and covering the still glimmering lamplight.

Short Story | Desert

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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    He fluttered his eyes open, blinking away the sand that irritated them He tried to utter a word, but instead a guttural sound came out from the back of his unused throat; parched and dried. He lied still while trying to figure out what happened after he passed out. He ceased remembering anything after he whispered his prayer and let darkness consumed him.

Moral Story | Smoking Is A Risk Factor of Chronic Diseases

 By Eddynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Haiku Poem | Wolves

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Silver moon 

Wolves on their hinds

Communicating through howling

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Haiku Poem | Chicken

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Chicken clucking 

Before the sun rises

Under the big tree

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Short Story | Coffee-Stained Sofa

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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       Brandon shot up from his place on the sofa when he heard some bustling sounds around the house, then groaned in pain as he rubbed his throbbing head. He squeezed his eyes close when the sunlight from the high sun blinded him through the sliding door. 

Short Story | Laundry and Tricycle

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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    "I treasured those candies, Mrs. De Guzman gave us," Sylvia folded the white cotton t-shirt with aching hands. She turned to Aurelia.

    "Who?" Aurelia reached for another maxi skirt from the hamper.

    "Mrs. De Guzman," she unconsciously tightened her fist, creasing the shirt. "The lady from the third house? She gave us candies, 'member?"

Article | As a Filipina, I Don't Associate With These Culture Shocks

 By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

Written on July 3, 2021

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I do not understand these four “culture shocks” that foreigners experience when they meet Filipinos or visit the Philippines.

These include:
1) Traffic
2) Filipino Time
3) Fast-food Etiquette 

4) Cheap Prices

Haiku Poem | Summer

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Burned, peeling tanned skin

Beach ball

In the freshwater fun

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Haiku Poem | Rose

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Bleeding roses

In a clear glass vase water half-full

Very thorny

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Short Story | Gowns and Books

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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    The silence resonates within the empty house after the best friend left hurriedly with the blue carry-on luggage. The best friend is on her way to a three-day conference in the capital and she asked the woman she's known for almost two decades to housesit her cozy condo until while she's away.

    The woman, twenty-four and single but definitely not ready to mingle, has straight black hair, black eyes, and brown skin. Typical of an Asian of Filipino descent. She stands four-eleven barefoot, about five-two in her three-inch killer heels. Right at the moment, she's barefoot, having taken off her gray-pink easy-to-slip Skechers by the bulky door. She saunters toward the wooden shelf divider partitioning the small kitchen-slash-dining room and the living room and she finds a chipped wooden frame with a faded picture of two young girls in fancy puffy red gowns and pearls and flowers hooked behind their ears. The girls have wide smiles, teeth showing and eyes creasing from laughter, like crescent moons in the blue sky, silver and hidden behind the sun's bright rays, forgotten and dimmed.

Short Story | A Piece Of My Soul Went With Him

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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    Sonia swung the door of her door room widely and hurriedly went inside the comfort room, twisted the shower knob, and let the cold sprinkle wash her sorrows. Meeting Ken again gripped her heart with so much pain she thought she already chucked away when she was having her world tour the year after their high school graduation, but one look at him and she crumbled again like the too-dry cookies Dana baked two weeks ago. Still wet. Still cold. Still in misery. Sonia flopped herself on the tiled floor and wept - silently. She's been weeping silently during her trip and the duality of her smile while the camera flashed and her frown when it did not show that she only had half-fun during those trips, especially during the first six months. 

Haiku Poem | Red

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Gray smoke from afar

Red firetruck's siren in the distance 

Red sun

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Article | Argue in SUPPORT of the Statement:

Not All Public Health Programs and Efforts Have to be Culturally Competent

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

Written on June 30, 2021

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Cultural competency in public health (medical, dental, optical, etc.) means that any healthcare professionals can diagnose (plan, treat, help) a patient appropriately by knowing and understanding the culture of the patient resulting in a better patient experience and an increase in trust (1).

Poem | Body

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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My stubby, hairy legs constantly bother me

But my lazy ass will never spend three hours

In the bathroom every week running razors

Over the crevices of my knees and the back of 

My shin and in between my thighs.

Short Story | Mari Is A Scaredy Cat

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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[2nd Floo Stairs; Maligaya Girls Dormitory, D City]

[00:16 AM]

    Mari clutches her backpack straps and takes the stairs to the second floor one step at a time. The first landing is decorated with lush, green vines crawling upwards and near the altar where Mama Mary glued her hands together in front of her chest in a praying position, cherubs singing songs with their goat-horn horns and the serpent underneath her feet. She looks downward to observe those who ascend the stairs. Mari's hair at the back of her neck rises and shivers travel down her spine. With the red sconces highlighting her features, the Virgin Mary doesn't look as benevolent as she is in the morning. Hurriedly, Mari takes the stairs faster, almost running the flights between the second and the third floor.

Short Stories | Yarns and Clouds

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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    Liksi is bored. She's been knitting red yarn, blue yarn, white yarn - so many yarns! - since eight in the morning and the only breaks she gets are during eating time, which means she only gets one break at lunch for less than an hour! Afterward, she has to continue until before the sun sets and it's time to eat dinner. Repeat the same routine tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, next day - she'll never be done!

Poem | Papa's Morning

 Papa's Morning

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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I woke up at five in the morning

before the breaking dawn, silently walking

down the hallways toward the shadowed kitchen

Flicking the light switch to bring in

warm glow and heat the water for my coffee

Bringing out the cooking pan to cook

fried rice and eggs and bacon

Poem | Makeup

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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No need to wax that beard. It's too fine.

Put on red lipstick instead and smack your lips together.

That foundation can cover those black and whiteheads,

Make sure it's the correct shade, okay?

You wouldn't enjoy a white face like Mulan's.

Short Story | With You Is My Safe Place

By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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    Nubsib pushes Hamina to the ground, and she looks up at his smug face. Hamina grits her teeth hearing it crunch, like corn in a stone grinder, and she tries to keep her composure even when she feels the scratches on her elbows sting. At five-year-old, the eight-year-old cousins, Nubsib and Aun, look bigger from the ground - even though in truth, they're only about six to seven inches taller than her. In the back of her mind, Hamina remembers telling her mother that "I'm not short and I'm taller than any other girls my age, mama," and that's the truth.