PATHLESS TRAVELS

2020-10-192020-11-05

Dear Honorable Ass. Secretary

Dear Honorable Ass. Secretary Celine Pialago of the MMDA:

This is what you said, and I’ll translate as accurately as I could:

“Not all mothers in jail were able to attend the burial of their child. So to those who sympathize with Reina Mae Nasino, know full well the reason why she is in jail, and recognize full well what she is [or stands for] in society. You’re turning your lamentations into an afternoon drama series. Just stop!”

Let me tell you a story that’s somehow related.

2019-04-212019-04-21

Jesus and Barrabas

Editor’s note: This was first posted on my FB page on April 20, 2019. I’m reposting it here with some additions and revisions.

CAN WE JUST STOP THIS FALSE ANALOGY, of choosing between Barabbas and Jesus as like a choice between “thieving politicians and honest candidates” in the forthcoming Philippine elections? It is the worst kind of analogy.

2019-03-192019-03-30

Bamboo shoots

Poems like this are like a bamboo grove, planted and nurtured by half-forgotten old folk, relentlessly tossed by the wind and rain, their foliage shed in the worst seasons of drought. But hopefully they’ll endure, for children to discover the ancient nooks and crannies where they will play and build their own dreams.

BAMBOO SHOOTS

Many years have carved these slopes.
It was around this time in March when
North Wind tarried on, defying summer thirst,
and a thousand shoots of green rejoiced.
They’d passed the test, and cried for joy, and raced uphill.
And we, who nurtured them, were about to shout
our wildest greetings when the thought struck us: Continue reading “Bamboo shoots”