081721

Bagamat dumadaplis lamang sa atin
Ang mga palaso ng kalaba’y
Hindi moog ang ating mga damdamin
At hindi rin bulag ang ating mga pananaw
Sa hayag na pagsasalitan ng mga balang ligaw.

Gaya ng durungawang nakasilip
Ay bukas na rin ang ating mga isipan
Sa mga di kanais-nais na mga patibong
Na ilang ulit inilagan sa katahimikan.
Bagkus, ang mga ito’y nagmistulang mga laruang papel
Na madaling napunit at bumigay
Buhat sa walang awang pamimihasa
Ng mga ahas at linta sa lipunan.

Tila sila’y nakasilid na lamang
Sa kahong hindi de-baterya
Habang tayo’y nagsisilipat
Sa tuwing nagsusulputan ang sari’t saring palatastas.

At habang tayo’y nananatiling panatag
Buhat sa ating mga kinatitirika’t kinalalagyan,
Kasabay naman nito ang pagyurak sa mga dangal
Buhat sa mga ideolohiyang kumikitil sa mga pangarap
At nagsisilbing diktador sa kani-kaniyang mga tahanang
Wala nang makita pang ibang dahilan upang tumahan pa.

Ang mga luhang hindi natin makayang punasa’y
Nagmimistulang mga tinik na lamang sa’ting mga pagkatao.
Syang susulpot at tutusok sa pakiramdam nating
Minsan nga’y malapit lamang tayo sa isa’t isa
At sana’y kaya nga nating patahimikin
Ang walang himpil na pag-usok sa kanilang ipinagbabaka.

At sa ating paghimlay sa ating mga kumot
Ay sabay din silang mangungulila
Sa mga akap at lambing ng kanilang mga mahal sa buhay
At hihilinging huminto na lamang ang mga sandali’t
Makatakbo sila’t makalisan nang walang nakakapansin.

At the end of the day it only comes down to how proud you are of yourself. Of how you picked yourself up every time you fell. It's not about how minuscule or gigantic something you've gone through is as compared to others, rather, how only you and you alone would have experienced that magnitude. It is impossible to compare yourself to another, every human's timing is different. It's all about the determination and willpower, the fire in your bones and the steady, grounding thoughts in your mind that drove you to become softer, yet heal your wounds and to stand taller and walk with pride. It's all about the lessons you learnt from every single instance when this dreary and somewhat bleak world pushed you down. You are not a graveyard of your failed attempts, you are not a cemetery of things and people that left you alone, you are the whole ocean, filled with a plethora of potential and goodness, that the whole world gazes at and admires.

i’ve always admired
the existence of flowers
each one
uniquely beautiful
like every person on earth

and somehow
the more i climb,
the more flowers
i get to see

Oil and vinegar,
Sugar and spice;
everything looks nice.
Your wit and charm,
sends long walks of
harmony into a world
of a never ending
façade.
Put's on his best smile,
but he will always be
a broken man.
Stay's at home,
I try my best to
console him and he
Put's his head high,
and thinks no one will
notice.
On the way, he imagines
reactions, that someday
he will have a perfect world,
made the way he wants it.
Making plans for Mikey,
to make sure he's a happy man.

You'll go through this world
in search of a lover that
you will never find

5:48 PM
10/8/21

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls
witness every shape and size
and as the whole world spins and swirls
not all but one may realize

Life brings trouble, worry and woe
but drowsy spirits pave the way
for pacing thoughts rode to and fro
until the breaking light of day

Needles struck in my weakened moon
And out of their gaping pores
Bloom strands of light
All sleek and soft in their intricate might

The world, you tell me
Is a lion flayed alive
And all the stars and suns
And bits and pieces such
The animals it loved

And I on these—
No
Dare I say I too itch with lone
No ‘I’s here
We, on these still clouds
Smothering thick
Walk
Our hands ****** into fleshy planets,
Eyes, drowsy beneath their gentle dusks

And all the screams
That we may have lived
Are drowned before they reach us
In the viscous air
Just, just beneath our feet

The land that birthed us
Worships a flame
That will ****
All that it has ever ruled
And the lion is bared
Its gold discarded to mud
Its pleas withered

Upon a stake it rests
Sun-warmed flesh made love to
By honey and precious vines
Kissed by ants
Crows—
No vultures, not them
They eat the dead only

And life bleeds out of our moon
—our moon
As nights lick it off

This is how I remember you:
A whimper beneath
—just a small ****
That grew where it shouldn’t have
Dried off in a minute
And a whimper above
Just a note, young as a twinkling star
At the edge of an eye

And this is how I remember you:
A face beyond the clouds,
Oblivious in its agony
And a glimpse of silver above
Fading away quietly
A moment
Before it is gone

Drunken, we walk
Lips curved, content
Skins as calm lakes untouched

We have lingered here
For hours or more
Many sunsets we have swum through
No moons, no kings
Begging our hearts for immortality

Slowly, the glimpses go away

Clouds get fatter
And golds and silvers
Collect dust
Somewhere—

I do not know what becomes of us
Only that clouds
Crowd around
Swooning for the petal-soft
Breaths of our light chests

Loving us slow, slow,
Slow
And we forget
Everything but.

Needles struck in my undying moon…