I watched the Filipino musical
Mula sa Buwan - From the Moon
It was stunning
Watching this youthful exuberant company of performers singing and dancing in 1940s Manila
I kept thinking about Abuela and Abuelo
How they had loved zarzuelas
Abuelo had even been in one I think
Or at least a play
With the man who became known to us as
Tito Conejo because he had played a rabbit
How they were teenagers in Manila
During the Japanese occupation
The atrocities they saw
The heartbreak they lived through
And how all that was so poetically captured on the stage
Two, maybe even three, generations away
The way the Filipino flag became the Japanese imperial flag
My heart caught in my throat
The framing device of theatre
The way we tell stories
The power of letters
The power of love
The power of music
I want to learn Tagalog
I want to visit Manila
I miss my grandparents
Perhaps they are dancing on the moon.