Gonzalinho da Costa’s most recent poem to appear here was “Asking Questions” (August 2016). 

Tres Figuras y Letras
By Gonzalinho da Costa

Comfort Woman, Roxas Boulevard, Manila

Naked, you were raped. Clothed,
You are memorialized. 

Pyeonghwaui Sonyeosang, Japanese Embassy, Seoul

You sit, waiting for a nation to acknowledge
Their crimes against humanity. 

Memorial to Comfort Women, St. Mary’s Square, San Francisco

Words outspoken ennoble you whom
Brutality and lust has shamed.