Literary Collections

Two Wars
(and I just sit and watch)


Let there be love
But no one listens, no one hears
Let there be peace, but no one cares
No one dares.

Let there be war!
Suddenly tanks rumble on,
Cluster bombs fall
Mortal targets hit
Young and old
And they claim they charge
With surgical precision

The Devil's Pact is broken
"Shock and awe" the battle cry
I shiver with disbelief
Brothers against brothers
From the fertile land of Mindanao
to the glowing desert of Baghdad
The ground trembles
As the fighting goes on.

Blood spatters
Mangled bodies everywhere
Desperate, hallow cries of
Innocent men, women and children
But no one hears them in the wilderness
Their faint voices snuffed by
Drumfire of the raging war

War turns love songs into dirge
Laughter into bitter tears
The greed to wage war
In the name of peace
It is a shame
Will peace really come?
Will it be soon?

I see crimson fireballs as the
night falls in Baghdad
I sit and watch until I hear another
explosion and destruction in Mindanao
I sit and watch in shocked and awe
I see Mindanao through
the night sky over Baghdad
Two wars thousands of miles apart
And I just sit and watch
I just sit and watch

24 March 2003
(after watching CNN)


Women Peacemakers

We, women from distant lands
War, injustice, poverty and intolerance
Separated us from our loved ones
We fled, we crossed the seven seas
We sought refuge
We left our tormented countries behind
Hoping to find warmth and helping hand
A better place to find rest
Bitter memories we tend to forget
But like the rushing waves of the ocean
They keep on coming back.

The colors of our skin differ
Our religion is not the same
You are what you are
And I am what I am
Although I have not understood all this
Why for some being different really matters
What I know, we are women.

We give love, we build peace
While others make war
We know we cannot just close our eyes
There’s so much goodness in this world
A just and lasting peace is worth fighting for.

One day peace will come
Someday justice prevails
It will because we will make it happen
This is our undying promise
To make the difference
Women of peace
We must not pause, we must not be quiescent
Until our weary soul finds rest.

28 June 2003

Stand up and be counted

You count how many peddlers
walk in a dusty pebbled road
under the scorching heat of the sun
arms outstretched
his own fate he could not command.

You count how many paupers
plunge into darkness
amidst daylight and
lose a thousand hopes
a thousand dreams
for even the right to hope
is no longer his own.

You count how many mothers
cry in anguish
in so much pain
for her right to caress her child
could never be the same.

You count how many lilies
open their petals not in springtime
You count how many wild birds
Singing tunes out of rhyme.

You count how many thousand lives
struggle for a piece of bread
in order to survive.
You count how many deaths have been offered
to give meaning to a wretched
meaningless life.

And yet it is when life is full of miseries
of anguish
of pain
of hunger
and of poverty
that each man and woman stands up
to give hope to a morbid sorrow
to give life to a dying promise
to give rhyme to a song and
to be counted.

Remember 17th of April

one day in april summer
the fiery sun angrily radiates
its glaring rays
a huge ball of fire
giving life but also drying both land and fields.

One day in april summer
Grasses in the meadow
Turned green then golden hue
Flowers vainly spread their petals
Vanity even mortals envy.

One day in april summer
You were with me
Scheming, dreaming dreams that can never be
The gentle strokes on my hair
The touch on my blushing cheeks
The hurrays I heard for every victory
Bring me back to the good old days.

April comes, april goes
Come 17th of april
The promise reached its fulfillment.

You were there
Calm. Not moving. Lifeless.
The countenance I’ll never forget.
Death has finally come to you
Succumb to the eternal quiescence
Obedient to the will of the Maker
Or is it really His will?

Ah death in april how will I forget even
Amidst my most silent contemplation
The Wednesday’s child
I adore, love and behold
A child of the Maker
Who dreams nothing but to live
And transcends his life to the Maker
Just to be dust once again.

Rain in unforgettable april summer
Listening to the music
Driving me insane
It is the dirge
My dirge
Who has been deserted

All because of 17th of april.
Remember?