Arvisu Blues Poem by RIC BASTASA

20 years hence
i ask you for a word to describe my
box existence in a place named
arvisu

you obliged with ' you were serious looking then,
but deep inside, (a little pause) i felt
something was boiling' as though i were a kettle
and i was thinking of the live cat
which the Chinaman put there without any mercy
and where the screams of the cat became one beautiful
silence
which we always try to savor during our dinner times

upon a feast of glances
unspoken criticisms of our submissions
to religion

those were the times of my suppressed revolutions
when even a newspaper i dared not read since i only want
to be all: deaf, blind, mute and still be human
more like a monkey eating eagle in those forests of
davao,

nevertheless, i still do not have the courage to ask you
questions pertaining to your good self,
forget it, but i have doubts about my questions
but mind you, even before i ask them i already knew all the
answers

and now you have the right to call me a hypocrite but i was
then an artist in the making. Remember that dusty library we had where books were left unread
where ideas about a revolt were kept a taboo

where we always had the idea that dogs must never bite
the hands of a master that feeds them jolibee
fried chicken everyday

i remember another hopeless fanatic who was with me cleaning the rest room and i wrote that the tiles were whiter than
our souls,

i am stopping now, my words are hurting and i do not like it when i am more of a knife than a bread which should have been delicious, soft, hot and ready for its show with brewed coffee from batangas and a sunny side up egg from novaliches.

till the next. take a vacation and by all means..marry.