The fishes are gone

I have been diving early dawn,
from one reef to another,
and into the depth of the shoal,
from sunrise till sunset,
but caught four tiny fishes,
and a dead oyster,
quite disturbing,
the fishes are gone.

Very vivid in my thought
just five years have passed,
my father had fished for an hour,
but brought us 3 tubs full of fishes,
and a pail of flowing abalones
and sea cucumbers,
in his pocket,
two beautiful shiny pearls.

Not so long ago,
where the fishes laid eggs,
blue, red and white corals,
tiled the natural beauty of the reefs,
but now are blackened,
dying in cyanide poisoning,
broken into pieces by dynamites' explosions,
deliberately uprooted and sold to China's
insatiable market,
they are too dead,
and gone.

something's bothering every morning,
inside of me,
fear is wildly growing,
one day if it will arrive,
fishes will just be part of
humanity's saddest memory,
the heroes of legendary books with ugly scales,
and swimming on the pages of folk tales.

It is quite not pretty,
seeing a bamboo black cross,
standing in the middle of a reef,
shouting out a message,
the sea is dead,
and all the fishes are gone,
gone even in our wildest imaginations.

Full moon's tide

It's full moon,
but the ebbing tide never comes,
the sea is fast rising,
it's getting hotter,
and becoming a monster.

The islet over the horizon,
its shore whiter than clouds,
where kingfishers and sea urchins
live in glory,
painted the sunset in silhouetted
prose mosaic,
but it's gone and devoured by the sea,
pulled deeper into her bosom,
till it disappeared,
disappear with the ebbing tide,
and both are not coming back.

What's going on with the sea?
It's hotter than ever,
she murdered the ebbing tide,
her rising water eats all the small islands,
and the storm she is sending,
are getting stronger and stronger,
not too soon,
the strongest,
no where we can run,
nothing to hide and keep,
but to wait for our death.

Where the river ends

Young man,
it seems that you're too innocent,
with a mind that never grows,
piece by piece,
you dump your thrashes on the river.

Watch it dying everyday,
its water,
once blue and singing melodious lullaby,
but today it's murky,
speaking its own eulogy,
Don't you miss swimming on it?

Rich man,
it's no longer funny,
you're intelligent but never realizes,
the waste of your factories and mines,
everything flows into the river.

Watch it bleeding every second,
its water,
once crystal clear and playing with edible fishes,
but now is red as blood,
hiding its death in the blanket of poisonous algae,
Can't you hear her crying?

When rain come,
garbage you threw,
clog the water way,
and poisonous flood seep through water wells,
everybody get sick,
perhaps die.

Over and again,
you'll blame government's ineptness,
but the answer is,
you created this problem,
and you want it.

Drought

Hello Alejandro my old friend,
it's half past five,
but the blaze of the sun is blistering still,
the soil of your cornfield is cracking wider,
the leaves of rolling grasses are dying faster,
it's unusual,
it's the rainy season,
but there's no rain,
everybody is looking for rain,
rain, rain and lots of rain,
yet rain is not coming,
take a rest for a while,
let's go to the terrace of your hut,
I love to drink coffee with you,
and talk about rain.

it's quite amazing,
torrential rain devastated some parts of the country,
it was just yesterday,
houses submerged by heavy flooding,
but there is no rain here,
rain, rain come again.

The wild spirits in the forest,
calm and still,
but irked by human wickedness,
and they sent drought as punishment.

Perhaps there is truth in your surreal thought,
look at the valley my friend,
it is where we used to hunt wild boars,
but mosses, orchids and rivers are dead,
the forest is gone,
influential political families abuse it,
it is denuded,
naked like whores,
everything is denuded,
its soil is colored chocolate,
it's dead and very gone.

My trusted friend,
deforestation gives us climate change,
can't you see?
Weather conditions are too extremes,
soon everything will dry up and gone,
and we will be gone.

Catastrophic Dream

Come on,
feel the noise of the roaring river,
it used to be our childhood dream.

Let us walk along its banks,
eat some oysters sweeter than honey,
gather seashells prettier than rainbow,
and make necklaces out of them,
like we did ten years ago.

Swim with me once again,
its water is softer than foam,
naked while our skins touched each other,
like we did not long ago.

Let's make a raft of banana trunks,
from the roughest water into the delta,
where we used to have our lunch,
with papaya pickles and grilled squid.

But you said,
sorry,
I can't go with you into our river of dreams,
its water is no longer sweeter but bitter,
flowing with poison from chemical industries,
it is as polluted as our politics.

The river of our dreams,
where we should build our home,
take some fishes on its water,
but it is dead,
the fishes turned into bones,
the seashells are melted like lead,
its water is acidic,
it is dead.

Sulyap

Sa isang sulok ng madilim na eskinatng makitid,

silakbo ng paghihintay ay umiinit ng di mo batid,

sana'y masilayan ka't sa aking labi'y ngiti ang hatid,

sana'y habambuhay tayong maigapos ng lubid.

Uma-ambon na't tila'y ayaw mong dumating,

umapaw man ang tubig sa kanal, wala akong daing,

umaraw naman sana't makita ka,tangi kong hilinbg,

ubos na rin ang mga sigarilyo,sa wari ko'y hindi ka darating.

Daho'y nilipad ng humuhuning hangin,

dumadaplis sa aking noo, parang mga bituin,

dumadapo sa tenga't tila'y ma hinahabilin,

dahan-daha'y  uuwi na nga at bitin na bitin.

Irrevocable

Love,
a sublime word that a lyrical emotion roars,
every soul is eager to be blinded by its bliss,
perhaps, a fur silk road, everybody wanders.

I love you!
three powerful words, profoundly spoken by me heart,
forever, they'll be painted in your artistic thought,
and they can not be bought.

I love you!
that's for real,
just don't let me eat bagoong, it's irrevocable.

KILLING GLOBAL WARMING

               Bats,
       of the dawning
               sky,

the ghost of the full moon's sigh,

                fly,
      feast on mango
              fruits,

sip the flowers' sweet nectar,

              come,
play around over the talisay
              trees,

planted thicker on denuded hills,

             watch,
once a dead river,it oozes
             water,

drink and swim,it's fresher,

             bats,
enjoy with me planting more
             trees,

tomorrow,a world of cool waters.