By Tomas Talledo
Posted by Bulatlat.com
I.
Our Empress shoves us into scoundrel time.
Her terrible reign inverted our simple world:
right is wrong and wrong is right.
She wants us to praise her fineries
but struts naked unashamed.
She urges us to labor night and day
but pays us clinks of coins.
She bids us to be tiptop healthy
but lays our table empty.
Her terrible reign inverted our simple world.
All of us can’t go on living like before
debt robs our commonweal.
Most of us can’t go on living like before
taxes snuff out our plans.
Some of us can’t go on living like before
bullets cut off our breaths.
II.
Her reign marks the time when virtues
stand on their heads.
In accord with her maddening will
things must be viewed anew.
This way the eyes correct our messy politics
deftly like a camera obscura.
To the Empress of many lies, the call for
truth is confusion.
To the Empress of big-time thieves, the claim for
reparation is avarice.
To the Empress of state violence, the cry for
justice is lawlessness.
Right is wrong and wrong is right
as power tastes like dope.
Decency pays homage to sheer arrogance
at the ding-dong of scoundrel time.
Her terrible terrible reign inverted our simple world.
III.
The best of our wishes will go with her when
she sails for the nether world
In the company of Dangerous Jovitus Barbarous
Captain of her loyal guards.
Both will be ferried by a large number of hosts
willingly, happily, terribly —
Camenia Abatan, Emilio Santillan, Oscar Sacdalan
Ganadi Pinamaylan, Henry Buduan, Marcelino Beltran
Juvy Magsino, Eddie Dimaano, Rolando Mariano
Joel Tolia Reyes, Henry Flores, Juancho Sanchez
Norman Bocar, Leodegario Punzal, Ruben Apolinar
Ponciano Silva, Victoria Samonte, Diosdado Fortuna
Crispin Amasona, Francisco Rivera, Abel Ladera
Jake Soriano, Pablito Ignacio, Edmundo Salcedo.
Sure guides, keen navigators, wayfaring seers
in our journey to freedom, but
Beneficiaries all of Glorius Marius Arius’ reign
when war against life was waged.
TT/November 2005
Posted by Bulatlat
