POETRY

The Reign of Empress Glorius Marius Arius the Terrible

By Tomas Talledo
Posted by Bulatlat 

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 

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