A Fangirl's Love Song

Your back is bent and shoulders down.
That forehead folds into a frown.
Your eyes squint not the usual smile.
Your lips form into a line.

The burning cold piercing your bone
Is the same fire that melts my own. With a sound,

Your breathing's slow and long and shallow.
Let me hold my breath to join you.

Your world is wrapped in a ball of darkness.
By the fuzz and haze, the sound is silenced.
They forget all that you are in the beginning.
They remember only what went wrong that stupid evening.

With every wrong, another one is made.
Here go those endless domino mistakes.
You cannot seem to do a single right
And cannot will the day to please just stop!

You smile your silent sighs. Hand-tied,
you mask a front that tried to look still dignified.
I cannot dare to watch it all. A dust in the universe,
I send you love, not that it makes a difference.

Solitary Fantasy

“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” - Maya Angelou

Great writers are messengers of God. The truth in their words are unmistakeable. So, do we believe in luck and fantasy? Well, why not. 

There are things in this world that are outside mainstream knowledge, but it doesn't mean they are untrue. 

A nugget of truth is given you. Believe.

A nun once told me, if you witness a miracle, it is yours. Keep it. It is between you and that phenomenon. The world has become skeptical due to a lot of witnesses and testimonials. Let the world stare in awe and wonder what happened.

One million realities transformed to give way to one fantasy maybe too much for a human brain, too strong for the faint of hearts. So just keep it and be quiet.

When the Bus Flew Off Skyway

December 16, 2013. I left Southwoods Exit at 4:50 AM. South Luzon Expressway was pitch dark save for the headlights of vehicles taking the route. The roads were slippery from the rains. These two are ingredients for disaster. Never mind who is cooking. I took the third lane, running between 60-80 kph for safety while vehicles whizzed me by. I wondered what important matters they needed to deal with to risk it.

At about a quarter after 5, I was under the Skyway along SLEX. The concrete road was dry. The Skyway kept the rains to itself.

Without me realizing it, a few minutes later, a red bus would fly off from above it, killing dozens, injuring more.

At 5:45 AM, I reached the Pope Pius Catholic Center and joined friends in what was left of the 4:30 AM Misa de Gallo. The celebration took longer than scheduled. The Choir sang some carols as we made our way out of the Church.

But back in SLEX below the Skyway...

A Mirror of Each Other - Yoling and Yolanda: 42 Years Apart

Typhoon Yoling struck on November 20, 1970. Those in their 50s and 60s and even 70s still remember it well like a nightmare. In the province, pigs in their sty drowned. Nipa huts were shredded like palay stalks fed to rice granaries. In the city, glass windows shattered in hospitals and concrete homes and buildings. Flood washed away everything in the way -- that went without saying, either. "Climate change" was still grammatically incorrect and Al Gore was only 22 years old.

November 8, 2013 CE, Super typhoon Yolanda - billed as the strongest typhoon ever recorded in world history (never mind Noah's and Gilgamesh's accounts of The Great Flood BCE) - struck Central Philippines and how!

News feeds remind you of Hollywood movies; what happen to the victims in the aftermath reminds you of novels telling the theme of dehumanization: The Call of the Wild, 1984, Lord of the Flies...

The world has come together to extend a hand: countries (developing and highly developed, friends and foes), leagues (big and small), individuals (popular and notorious; known and unknown; rich and poor).

The world has shed tears, some bent their knees, too.

There is a lesson here. May we pass the next open book exam henceforth.

(Hopelessness and Hope)

 (They have had enough posing for aerial views.)

(NYC's Empire State Building in Philippine Colors to show solidarity with our people) 

Anti-Epal Law? Just Scrap Pork.

Mr. President, 

You don't need to admit it, but quite a number of people know it. You need PORK to bribe senators, congressmen, and the powers-that-be to pave your dream "daang matuwid." You need PORK as a carrot to push the rabbits, nay, the crocs to do your bidding. 

I wouldn't be surprised if you used PORK to ensure Corona gets impeached. You used PORK to get more allies. Mr. President, seriously, aren't the majority of the Filipinos, those who voted for you, not enough to cover your back? Aren't we enough to stand by you while you do the right things you promised in your campaign? We have your back. You do not need the dirty, greedy politicians. 

Just scrap the goddam pork! Enough of the Mayors and Congressmen and Senators putting up Pamantasan ng Lungsod/Baryo/Iskinita ng ___ then marking school buildings as Gusali ni Mayor/Senador/Gov/Cong. Enough of Mayors/Govs/Senators/Congs distributing ambulances for I have not seen a public ambulance that has no politician's name on it! Enough of every bit of public infrastructure from roads, to footbridges, to day-care centers, to public markets, to bridges, to basketball courts with names of politicians on it! Enough of putting name tags on every property bought and acquired using OUR money! 

Anti-epal law? That will be the thing of the past, if you scrap pork. So save people's money and people's ears from Sen. Miriam Santiago's grandstanding about her anti-epal bill.

Let your agencies do their work. Let CHED, TESDA and DepEd build schools and provide scholarships. Let DPWH build infrastructures (and allot one CCTV for every 10 employees of this agency, too.) Triple the manpower count of COA. Let DOH provide for ambulances and other medical needs to cities up to and down to the remotest of villages. Let DSWD provide for the emergency needs of the poor and even the not so poor - from the simple fare to one's province to caskets and burial expenses. Let NHA build houses for the disenfranchised, but I don't mean here the informal settlers. Let DENR take care of the environment. Let DA take care of the farmers. 

You are not going to be the president forever. Scrap pork in your term so that the next government regardless of its president will be hard put to undo it. If you scrap it, the Filipino may be assured that those running for public office will not be running after PORK.

So just SCRAP it!