RENATA, HOLD THE WORLD TOGETHER

1.

love is dead

(the wind blows lonely)

but there is a return

to moonlight on the beach

where her laughter keeps thundering

across the fragile brain.

the world laughs

the sun is a fiery disc in the sky

but there is a cold cold corner

     at dawn

     morning is the beginning

     of a thousand deaths.

2.

there is order in the world:

     war, famine, thirst

death, immorality, crime against

     property, all are parts

     indivisible

     even hallucinations.

and the poet asks:

will it end in fire or ice:

i say neither

the world will end

when i no longer see myself

in your eyes

when the chain

of love snaps in two

breaking like brittle twig.

IN THE TIME OF THE HOLOCAUST

(Ater reading " The Road" by Cormac McCarthy)

go to another country where the moon
pines for a meandering river
the sun longing for  a flight of birds
in a sky of utmost blue
it is a season when papayas are in bloom
but the tree is a barren woman in the spring
of her life--gone are the stars in her eyes
it is a season of harvest, but the farmer
rues--his work animal has long been dead

an old man walks on a beach
strewn with ashes and dead fish
it is sunset, but the voices of urchins are muffled
the land is bereft of sound and life
it was the year without the typhoons and the rains
and death is alive in the silence where once stood
the great forest and mansions of rocks.

go to another country
where the sun rises in the west
and the moon weeps at sunrise

and we? we shall search the ruined cathedrals
comb the mountain city that perished in flames
and finding none, we shall descend into the canyons

of memories.

ONE REASON WHY FILIPINOS DON'T TRUST THE JUDICIARY

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has posted a P1-million bail bond to gain her freedom, taking Malacanang and the Sandigan off guard. It is always the lawyers' game, when money talks.

Village Lass Commits Suicide

This 21-year old girl of Ambatali village was working in Manila for sometime. Last week-end she came home depressed--she and her boyfriend,  identified in her suicide note as Francis, had quarreled. On Sunday night, she was missing and her parents and relatives looked for her everywhere. She had jumped to the nearby irrigation canal of the Magat River Irrigation System. Her barely unrecognizable body was found by policemen two days later in an irrigation canal in Malapat village of  Cordon town, 18 kilometers away.

Photos: Bridge over the Magat River and the main canal of the Magat River Irrigation System in Aguinaldo, Ramon, Isabela.  It is an irrigation canal near her home that the girl, jilted by her lover, jumped to her death.

SUDDENLY, IT IS EVENING*

SUDDENLY, IT IS EVENING

the room is wide
this morning
as wide as your pain
somewhere in a corner
of remembered remembering
where were you
when the sea
was bereft of broken beer bottles
and crumpled tin cans?
last night the rainbow jukebox
blared your song
while the smoke-filled bar
echoed with drunken laughter
and your epilogue
of wasted years.
it should have been this way--
no, no, no, it could have been that way

( the last stanza consists of 15 lines, the last of which echoes the title)
....
....
....
....
....
....
and suddenly, it is evening

photo shots in Singapore*/included in the Ilokano-English anthology, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Agains, Stranger", launched in the 11th Nakem International Conference at the Pangil Beach Resort, Currimao, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, May 23-25, 2016. 

NO END TO IMPUNITY?

As Murderous As Politicians

Impunity is an ugly word. As ugly and terrible and murderous like Philippine politicians as well as policemen and private persons with political influence. (The Ampatuans of the of the infamous Maguindanao massacre, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who headed the most corrupt administration in the country's history, among others.)

Webster's dictionary defines impunity as exemption from punishment, penalty, or harm. A similar word with the same meaning is immunity or exemption from obligation imposed on others like exemption from taxation and exemption from criminal prosecution.

Impunity. Immunity from suits. Lucky are these and their followers including kinsmen who show contempt for the law and do whatever they wish to do knowing they get away with it. Even if they are caught and hailed before the courts, the means for them to escape punishment is always there--money to pay off the judges and lawyers and witnesses.

Were the Ampatuans thinking about these when they massacred 58 people in Maguindanao. They had all the tools to commit the beastly deed--guns, back hoe-- and they were in power as was their patron, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who created them.

Can we apply the word to an Isabela mayor who gets what he wants in the municipal government? The mayor gets P53, 000 monthly salary while his wife as his executive assistant receives P23,000 as salary, while an in-law and two other relatives receives at least P15,000  each as monthly salaries.  In addition, the mayor has 5 service vehicles that include an Innova and an expensive car like Lenux? 

QUOTE FROM PABLO NERUDA

From Childhood and Poetry

To feel the intimacy of of brothers is a marvelous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and weaknesses--that is something that is greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.