This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.
The Boy The Girl
The Rat The Rabbit
and the Last Magic Days
Chapbook, 2018
Republic of Carnage:
Three Horror Stories
For the Way We Live Now
Chapbook, 2018
Bamboo Girls:
Stories and Poems
From a Forgotten Life
Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2018
Don't Tell Anyone:
Literary Smut
With Shakira Andrea Sison
Pride Press / Anvil Publishing, 2017
Cupful of Anger,
Bottle Full of Smoke:
The Stories of
Jose V. Montebon Jr.
Silliman Writers Series, 2017
First Sight of Snow
and Other Stories
Encounters Chapbook Series
Et Al Books, 2014
Celebration: An Anthology to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop
Sands and Coral, 2011-2013
Silliman University, 2013
Handulantaw: Celebrating 50 Years of Culture and the Arts in Silliman
Tao Foundation and Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee, 2013
Inday Goes About Her Day
Locsin Books, 2012
Beautiful Accidents: Stories
University of the Philippines Press, 2011
Heartbreak & Magic: Stories of Fantasy and Horror
Anvil, 2011
Old Movies and Other Stories
National Commission for Culture
and the Arts, 2006
FutureShock Prose: An Anthology of Young Writers and New Literatures
Sands and Coral, 2003
Nominated for Best Anthology
2004 National Book Awards
You get home to your apartment and find that your whole living area is covered with colorful blooms—gardenias, zinnias, daisies. Suddenly Bert bursts from the field of flowers, naked and yelling happily, “I SAID I’M SORRY!!!”
Pause. Shove your immediate thought balloon (Who’s going to clean up this out of your head and try to appreciate the act of sweetness.
Then smile brightly, albeit belatedly, because you’ve got yourself a great guy who went through all the trouble of doing something cliché simply because he’s not aware that petals on the floor leading into the bedroom is such a Maricel Soriano-Edu Manzano moment, at the height of their short-lived love affair (don’t bother telling him this unless you’re prepared to hear, “They got together? When?”)
Then self-destruct into uncontrollable weeping. If Bert ever cheated on you, you might die, or worse, turn psycho Janice-style and plan his wedding to someone else without his knowing it. Cry until your shoulders shake, but lest Bert think you find his naked glory disgusting, try to smile through the tears. Nod a little to let him know that yes, you appreciate the sweet gesture. Cry some more because now that you’ve got it going, you might as well purge yourself and find great relief in shedding tears. Cry harder still when you realize Bert is looking at you funny, as though you’ve gone mad, when in fact it’s him who’s standing amid a sea of flowers with his balls and penis hanging out there in the open. Then cry some more because somehow, you can hear yourself laughing.