(Pastilan!)
    this is where
     no words
      break
      fall
     shatter

it is where now,
    a barefoot army in the wilderness
tromps the silence
   leaving it trundling
  in its wagon.

     (Pastilan!)
    this is where no love
     thaws
      petrifies
      stunts.

it is where now,
  many skeletons are
  unraveled, unsheathed as a melancholy ***** in one of
   the quiet rooms in Hagonoy.

(Pastilan!)
     dogs
      all
     barking
     trying haplessly
   to bite without teeth
    fangs yellow with old.
   mane squandered by steps
    of light.
   woebegone are the paws
     and the only thing
  we do best
     is howl
    at our
       pains.

Pastilan!