If you want to see happy people
Go to the bookstore

As they flip the first few pages
Observe the cover and the edges

Notice the torn and the teardrops
Rub the coffee spills and the bookmarks

Smell the old cinnamon bread
As this 2nd hand book tells, the living and the dead

And if you see them smile,
And their eyes sparkle like the sea

By that you can tell
And tell, yet begin another story

So if you want to see happy people
Go to the bookstore

They are silently sitting in the corner
But you don't judge a book by its cover

A tiny man once looked up
He sees the clouds, skyscrapers, and rooftops
And that moment formed a vibrant ambition
The biggest dream among the dreams of the entire nation
Before these buildings were buildings
they were skeletons of lumber and scaffoldings
Before they were dusty skeletons,
they were girders and crossbeams
of metal, hardwood, and concrete
And before they were that,
they were construction plans
Long after that,
they were architectural plans
And what we don't know is in the past
That a tiny man once looked up
And he sees the clouds, skyscrapers, and rooftops
And that moment formed a vibrant ambition
To dream the biggest dream among the entire nation

Such perfection so condensed to one
Even Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman,
Will face annihilation instantly
For she's the woman-the most phenomenally

My woman is never like a glass
She belongs to the stronger class
She's also not a stormy cloud
She holds tears better than any crowd

My woman is not a rose or an orchid
For her beauty comes from perennial seed
My woman nowise to be Venus idolater
Many can tell, she's a Bellona's warrior

This woman is not my wife,
Nor my girlfriend, but my life
She's the phenomenal woman for me
She's my mother, the one and the only

Fear the people
Leaders came from us
As dust formed life
To dust will return
Oppressors will
And shall subside

Fear the people
Fear the revolution
Any walls built
And impede our freedom
Will rise and fall
Like the Berlin wall

Matagal nang nagsimula
at patuloy na umiiral
Ang ating matinik na pakikipamuhay
sa ating bayan

Palagiang nasasadlak
sa karalitaan
Ang dugo ng kabataan,
alay sa kasarinlan

Tayong mga bulag,
sa siyensiya at kapalaran
Sa pagmartsa ng kalabang
hindi natatanaw

Naulit ang kasaysayang
may isang kurso at galaw
Bala para kay tatay
ang anak ang namatay

Bumagsak ang ekonomiya
Lumambitin sa aming mga leeg
Iniasa ang pagtaas
sa aming mga bisig

Habang si Alejandrino
dumarami't nagbubuntis
Ang batang henerasyon
Patuloy na nililitis

Kung ganun,
Huwag ninyo kaming pababayaan,
Paglustayan, paghirapan
At pakikinabangan

Sa gayong mga pumalya at matatanda
Ay may aakay
Walang huhugot sa Inang bayan-
Kundi kaniyang kabataan

"Strength in numbers" as the American says
The Great Unity (dàtóng) the Chinese prevails
"I am because we are" the Ubuntu in Africa
We, the Filipinos, we have "Pagkakaisa"

Houses lifted and moved through "bayanihan"
As solidarity bolstered during typhoon Haiyan
By peaceful revolutions, ousted miscreants
For we are but red ants and we bite as one

When things go rough and that we cannot grasp
And set our prime but destiny decline
We say, things happened for a reason

When things go wrong but not too wrong
Instead of death we've only received scathe
We say, things happened for a reason

As if someone had a concrete plan for us?
Such being amputated and losing our sight
Are just shenanigans, just blessings in disguise?

We believed, for after suffering, a safe haven
But truth is, things don't always happened for a reason
For every choice there's an equal share of delight and affliction

But then, a mortal mind had always shown
On losing situations we'd clung to the unknown
And maybe, just maybe, you're in the right situation

Because things happened with or without reason