Katipunan
I admire the grayness of the pavement
Marred by the tires of jeepneys that move past
And stained by the rainbows of spilt, wasted gasoline
I can see that it’s not always black and white
That when I take a step backward and look
The colors merge and break into splinters
Of photographic ambiguity —-
Forever undeveloped
Under the pretense of monotony
Or can it be that I’m just tired?
Tired of waiting for that Antipolo ride
That just would not come
When my heart, lungs and consciousness
Are being murdered by the specters
Of red-plated, smoke-belching vehicles
Under the umbrella of a battered piece of cement
Or maybe it’s just the loneliness
The solitude of being alone
Among traffic enforcers, co-pedestrians
And manongs whose rides can’t take me home
The emptiness and sadness of living a dream
And forgetting another
The wakefulness that here I am, stuck in a terminal
Where no FX nor jeepney can bring me
To where the colors merge and break into smiles
Without you, I admire the grayness of the pavement
Because I know that somewhere, beyond the smoke
And vagueness of today, you too are standing
And footed on the same road as I am
Perhaps delighting too in the puddle of
Colors, made real by the mirage of your own tears
And standing here, where the sun is threatening to fall
I endure the ache of seeing only the shadows of the future
And I weep, I weep because I know
That you are just a ride away
Yet I cannot reach you
Still I can’t come home
