Clostridium Tetani

Hubo akong tumatako sa palengke
Ang tsinelas ko’y sariling balat na nagbigay
Pag-asa sa libo-libong itlog ng mga uod na nakakalat
Sa sahig ng pabilihan ng isdang tabang.
Ginawa kong tarak-tarak ang nga hasang na
Pinatangal ng mga bumibili ng Tilapia, madugo, malamig.
May hinlalaki sa tyan nito.
Ilang sandali pa ay inutusan akong magbenta ng kamatis at kalamansi
Ayaw ko sana, hinampas naman ako ng matipunong kamay
Huwag ka mag-alala, hindi naman ako nasaktan,
sanay na
Palibot-libot, pa ikot-ikot sa mga tindahan, sa palengke
Isinuot ang short na basahan at apron ng nagluluto ng double dead na tinola
Kamatis kayo! Kalamansi! Kwarenta ang kilo! Cellophane!
Walang bumili, at takot akong magpakita sa kanya at kanyang matipunong kamay
Ilang beses na rin akong hindi naka pag agahan eh, ay! tanghali na pala
Kaya, tuloy parin sa mga maputik na daanan, may mga bubog, at tae ng aso
Tuloy sa madungis na mundo at mga baklang nagbebenta ng malalaswang pinirata
Bawal daw ang bata.
Tumuloy ako sa gulayan
Bulok na ang mga gulay, tinurukan lang kasi ng
Formaline ba yun? Ewan. Kamatis!. Kalamansi!
Mura lang ang Patola at monay dito, kahit saan pwede
Murang mura lang! at may nag mura na naman sa akin
Sa wakas, may benta na! at agad akong bumalik, sabik na sabik
Dahil medyo lubog na ang araw sa kanluran
Hindi na gaanong mainit at pwede na akong makipaghabulan
Sa mga kaibigan kong muslim.
Kumaripas at nakipaghabulan ako sa mga asong nanlilisik ang mata at naglalaway
Sabik na akong kumain ng mga isdang hindi nabenta
Budburan ng suka at asin, solb na!
Itatapon na man din lang. madugo at malamig.
Ngunit! “P****g *n*!” – Ang sabi ko. Bakit? Wala ng tao?
Iniwan na naman ako ni Amain, nagsara na ang tindahan.
Ang aga naman nyang nag sara? Baka nakalimutan niya lang ako
Tulad ng dati. Matutulog naman ako kasama ng mga Daga, surot at ipis
Sa maginaw na sulok sa pabilihan ng Karne.
May mga puting anak ng langaw ng nginunguya ang kalyo ng aking paa
– anim na oras-
Nagising akong pinagpyestahan ng mga nabanggit na kasama
Namula ang paanan at kilikili ko
Masarap ang init ng araw, nakasakay sa isang truck
Mga naka unipormeng hindi naman pulis ang mga nakita ko, kasama ko, kasama namin
San ako patungo?
“Sa DSWD!” Ika ng isang batang madungis tulad ko.

The Walk, the Night, and the Broken Hymen

As i pace another night
I seek the stars and the moonlight
There was none and all was black
And there was no turning back

Once again i am detached
And i feel like being watched
As i pass each light post faint
Whose light can honor a saint

Halfway to my rendezvous
There was nothing else to do
But keep walking by a church
Hope that no ghost will emerge

Past the church, another one
there were dogs, i did not run
though their canine teeth are shown
Still they grant me safe sojourn

Walking with moon's company
And the brilliant starry sea
Was the night, that ruled them all
For i saw innocence fall

Houses, once lighted by wicks
Built in nineteen forty-six
My lone procession they take
But a house still is awake

From the window, there i saw
they're uncovered, it was raw
What do people do when cold
Ti's the tale the window told

What has come, my decent walk?
That incite unconscious talk
All the days that God create
Why'd he put me in this fate?

Watch her face, i cannot bare
She's the girl with flowing hair
Who often sit beside me
On the lounge of library

With a kind, Cherubic face
I can't believe she'll embrace
A deed so base, Why'd she sell
Her fragile body to hell

Honest window showed me clear
How her eyes produced a tear
That twinkled for my eyes
To behold what truly lies

Pale, the color of her skin
Laid on that altar of sin
Quenching all a stranger's thirst
She think not her honor first

Soul of her sorrowful song
To my ear it whispered long
Her lover, a love he keeps
On a distant room he sleeps

The Volcanic libido
Disturbed the tress' sleeping crow
Does she really need his pay
For her studies in the day?

Her exhausted body frail
Mercied by a baby's wail
On that wooden, creaking bed
On a room that's painted red

I see the ceiling perspire
From the steam of this satire
Ascending from where it's borne
On her body's' tender torn

Stillness of my piercing glance
Still on her enduring dance
On a mattress colored beige
Shocks and tremors; she engage

Cold midnight breeze, freeze my ear
Body shivers not in fear
Invokes my pity and hate
Seen on that window's narrate

Must continue, i decide
Leave the window for the stride
So long our sins for tonight
She failed to switch off the light

Genuflect; A Divine Perversion

Holy utterance, Thy tongue
Has made cunning by a tree
To gather the holy fee
From the pockets of old and young

Thy vesture of linen white
Symbolize thy taken vows
To shepherd a sinful house
Not by staff, but with a scythe

When praying to holy saints
Carved on wood or hung on walls
Thou sell them on parish stalls
As a bulwark for the taints

Sacred waters thou has blest
Did it hinder thy abuse?
Of their innocence on pews
Now i doubt thy being cleansed

Just human, thy alibi
So thou heard the call of flesh
And thou use a virgin fresh
Anus, from persuasive lie

You omit thy being chaste
When thy staff, used to impale
The juveniles who are bale
And you punish them with haste

Faithfuls on thy presence kneel
Someone is pretending blind
Thy altar knight stood behind
Reminiscing an ordeal

With thou, when he was no one
Had brought him before thy God
Then thou started to get odd
When thy buttons, had undone

He on thy room acquainted
Gallantry of things thou bought
And promised all what he sought
If he gets his soul tainted

Marked, smeared, forlorn altar knight
Tormented and is bleeding
Torn tissues and the screaming
A slave to thy carnal plight

Pains of thy excessive drill
Pumps a soul that has no peace
And the right thing is to cease
This obedience to thy will

So at noon, he made the choice
Depart with his agony
Of thy mock divinity
With a clear and humble voice

Father, father i must say
"I cant be with thee tonight"
And this quoth the altar knight
Father quoth; You're here to stay

The Dethronement

Tell me mother, what's the taste?
Tender chunks of shattered waists
Carnage swimming on your mouth
Macabres concluding route

Mother tell me? what's their fault?
that you've drown them in your salt
With their blood and fluids fuse
Dead ones, never did you choose

Is it like a candy drawn?
When you chew them and their gone
By your tempestuous tongues
Fishes found a home on lungs

You pity not the drowning
And savor all the dying
Those pale faces whom you've bound
On heels, so they can't be found

Mother did you treat her well?
On your limbs, a swelling hell
The princess poor has lost her crown
For you hanged her upside down

Mother, mother may i ask?
Is it just to make them cask?
Made of metal, twisted cry
Your dominion they defy

Its a lesson you inflict
Those who mock and maledict
Your cordial sublimity
They keep breaking your decree

Mother, still they do not hear
All their faults, your children dear
How much will they have to pay?
Murders of so grim a day

The Death of a Well

There was once an aged well
Whose depth mocks the fiery hell
Frigid waters rests inside
Mortals with their needs supplied

Once provide their sustenance
The great well, but that was once
Thirsty brought their jars to fill
With waters untainted still

Origin still is unknown
Said that it was no ones own
Witnessed life cause like the mounts
Lasting yore is so profound

Stationed on a misty realm
Withered trees are overwhelmed
Red bricks fade, mosaic broke
Like the woods that peckers poke

Wrinkled ground of which she stood
Pity her for she was good
The deep void that light cant reach
Her womb home of mud and Leech

Time has closed her living pores
And has barred her breathing doors
Rendezvous of water rain
Sucked up dry and gone for vain

So the late was claimed by vines
With the mosses, and the spines
Comes the homage of the fur
Now the sons remember her

Quiescent no more

Harvest first the master says
Famine stricken throat for days
Brought the end of farmers toil
Again United with his soil

Comfort of a market shade
Home of all the beggars frayed
Talking wounds on fleshless knees
That is what they meant of peace

Collecting broken dreams, a house
Of Harlots forced to work with sows
Make-up hides the swollen ducts
Client undresses and locks

Bustling cars of justice men
Does his job from ten to ten
Meets the youth to sell his drugs
remits to political rugs

Precious vault the greedy owns
Money in his blood and bones
Hunger knocks his shiny Ford
Mocks away the poor ignored

Peaceful yet it harrows you
If justice hides what should you do
For a youth that serves to God
Must you share our Jesus' blood

Blood of love and peace accords
Christian soldiers drop your swords
Wear the cleanest conscience robe
Start with you before the globe

Ragamuffins are stray cats

Steady down pours made town ghost
White, yellow lights from a post
Deepest thoughts, horizon black
Emphasized on garbage sack

Fruit born of the urban skirt
Walking, searching tummy's worth
Stranger to a passerby
Tempting chicken entrails fried

Providence our hero calls
Thumb-size maggots climb the walls
Ever drooled on some steamed rice
Ventricles leap for spoiled fries

A problem is not when drenched
Problem is when men fist clenched
Diaphragm has lost its air
Broken rib has none to spare

Flowing warmth, body's bruised smeared
Long to eat is hunger steered
Crawling streets and dodging trucks
Drowning on a life that sucks