i hate the weeds but i love the bees that
keep me company

The Voices of the Earth

I yearn to speak the words that sit on the tip of your tongue

I know I’ve hurt your waters, your leaves
I’ve left my mess on your shoulders, and weighed you down
I’ve taken all your fruit, all your hidden rivers
And in return I’ve given you the empty bottles that float in your arms
I’ve choked your beautiful dwellers
I’ve stolen their homes, I’ve set your trees on fire to make more room for my own
I’ve used your fields for torture, I’ve left innocent blood on your land
I’ve filled your skies with thick black smoke, and stolen your emerald blues
And now you’re starting to break, as I search for another place
I’ve denied your sickness, I’ve silenced your birds from telling the truth

And now...
I yearn to speak the words on the tip of your tongue
The ones we can barely hear, because you’re too ill, and time towers over your soul as you croak
“Let me live another year”

I will be black not blue

I will be filled with trash

I will be burnt and layers of ashes

Who are we
We are the sky you ****
The oceans that you ****
And the plants that you ****
And we’re not happy
And so we beg and beg you
Please save us before it’s too late
Please save us before we die
In silence

Dear society,

I’m mad at you. Your lies, the images of “ideal” vandalized in everyone’s mind, driving them to cut shapes in their skin and end themselves. I’m mad because we were given the gift of difference, the gift of a mind possibly like no other. I’m mad because we did everything wrong with gift. The animal in us still wants to get to the top, the very top of the line because that’s how we survive. By making ourselves stand out. We killed each other and made our families watch. We cut through those who denied our presence with blades and stones. We never once thought about peace. Or maybe we did, but the screaming in society, the dominant voice that led us into self destruction has trampled over the little gleam of hope. I wish I could just be mad at you, but I’m not. I’m mad at myself, because I tell myself I hate that image that every girl follows, I hate that promise society makes that if we use this, our lives will get better. But I still follow that stupid image. I fall for every promise society makes even though it doesn’t know what it’s doing. It’s hard to say we’ve gotten over that image, because we still want to get to the top of the line like everyone else. We take pills to forget who we’re mad at. We take the knife in our hands to distract us from what we so desperately need to pay attention to. We flourish in our dark bedroom, because the cold floor is used to our weight and the ceiling is used to catching our anger as it rises above us and takes over. We’re still following that light whether we like it or not. Why in a world so advanced, smart, emotional, delicate and indestructible are we so blind to what is ruining us altogether? Not by war, not by bullets, but by that image that we look up to. By that artificial light that drives us to **** each other. By a world so driven to getting to the top, that we fall trying to get there.

lahat daw ay pantay-pantay
sabi ng mga balatkayong nakaupo sa silya ng salapi,
ngunit naguguluhan itong batang isipan,
lahat pa ba ng ating gawa ay pantay sa mata ng Maykapal.

biyayang ipinagkaloob Nya sa atin,
biyayang unti-unting nasisira,
puso'y lumuluha sa nakikita; ang may sala,  yaong Kanyang kawangis.

Kanyang 'kawangis' pa ba kung isalita?
kung mga gawa na abot langit ang pinagkaiba.

I love to photograph
the wild things in the land
If it weren't for the finned and clawed creatures
We wouldn't understand the
technology in our hands

Sonar is what we use to get a glimpse of pre-born babies
We have sonar from dolphins and bats
and yet we scream, "Rabies!"

We wouldn't understand infrasound if it weren't for
the elephants
But we only see their ivory, not their intelligence

Tigers and leopards are born to be trained assassins with
their patterned camouflaged coats
But we make them our trophies because humans need to gloat

We owe omega three's to the schools of fish who gave us healthy brains and hearts
But instead we fill their bellies with plastic and tear their reefs apart

Savannas and forests are turning into deserts because of climate change
But we insist it's just a theory
Who cares about polar bears anyway?

Yes, I love to photograph the wild beasts with
fins, claws, and tails
Because I'm afraid that someday
future generations will ask,
"What was once a whale?"

There I sat under an unknown tree
A place so cozy and amazingly free
With a tired soul I looked around
And saw the beauty of nature's ground

How can something so fine and
astounding,
be withered and ***** with color
vanishing?
The once elegant scent of fresh flowers
blooming
Turned into a dumpster of our wrong
doings

I want to see how it was before, again
Back to the days when nature was sane
To when I was still able to see them
The sea that sparkles like precious gems

Here I sat under a shade
A once green shade, that now has fade
It used to be cozy and amazingly free
That one nature, I am dying to see

The night sky was a piece of art, sketched
By a thousand eager caresses of the wind and
Painted with tender brushstrokes in the many 
hues of dark blue, sprinkled with white sand.

There she sat cross-legged, bare arms trembling with
Cold (anticipation) --the earth seemed so far away
Suspended on a canvas of concrete hundreds of
Feet in the air, metal bars in decay

Lights dying, fumes dissipating, horizon
Fading--Skyscrapers but a silhouette 
In a backdrop of gray (the silence felt wrong, somehow,
Like fine wine on a picnic mat) 

So she closed her eyes and imagined--
less gray, more blue,
The smell of petrichor, and the humming of birds, and leaves 
glistening with the sheen of morning dew

But she opened them again--
Saw prison bars, and she realised, 
All along she had been listening to a lonely
Melody her mind had devised...

Painting an impossible picture.