Written by Mattie Balagat
…
As with the common flu, we ladle
Chicken soup for our sensibilities,
In heaping aphorisms (CTTO1,
Our nonblasphemous relative).
…
Why does protest smell of
Smoke and molotov? And prayer,
A vanilla-scented candle?
…
The remedy, we preach,
Is to admire the sunlight
Filtering softly onto the sala2.
So follows the ending of a blockbuster
Where bullets shoot the antagonist dead,
And hunger sits a footnote to human grit.
Let the narrative be continued without its cast —
Else is a headline thrown away tomorrow.
…
Why does oust scatter
Rabid dogs howling at dust? And justice
Prolong a gilded melody beyond our grasp?
…
Retreat: to the wounded Body, stripped to barely human,
By a comment resurrected in glory.
By another crucified with apathy.
We of little faith, barking wildly
From our ivory cages.
Comfortably
Six feet away.
…
1 Short for Credits To The Owner.
2 Living room (Filipino).
The Polyphony 