Negrense House, Silay Poem by RIC BASTASA

it is retold that in this house
live the ghosts

whose bodies of women and
children
of a religious family
were huddled
sometime in the
1800 mercilessly killed
by cruel monsters
inside the basement

the white bearded man
who sits on one of those antique
chairs
says that cries can still be heard
from those
12 empty rooms

the place is
a historic landmark now
where this old house stands still
unwavering to the
passage of time
unlike those which were
buried a long time ago
by limbo
and cannot be remembered

you cannot feel dust here
as one looks at the world from this window
one can feel
eternity at the fingertip

the words pass by
as i stand still trying to listen to the faint
cry of the
wind from the sugar fields