Ormoc in my mind, by the bay
Samar and Leyte were songs first before they became islands of destiny from our home in Ticao, in Masbate. These melodies filled our afternoons and early evenings. They were about distant mountains and bird-tricksters who sang the naughtiest of meanings, early lessons for a little boy about the kind of humor that the old men and women loved to hear as they drank tuba and “Shoktong” (a herbal wine originally named “siok hoc tong”).