I tried to span the length
of the night sky
listening
to the voices in my memory,
listening,
as it slowly float in the night sky
longing for your voice
that sang songs of truth
and horrible plights
I felt your blouse
drenched in sweat,
deprived from home
for days,
with your shoes
punching the road
where the color of blood
found radical reasons to flood,
chanting
and shouting at the ones
who are deaf
from the music of pain
and blind
from the terrible sight of the past
that happens to still remain
I can still taste your lipstick on the filter,
reminiscing our nights that were caught
by the morning sunlight,
our exchange of acquiesced notions
that warmed our cold screaming nights,
nights that entangled our limbs
and wished we were wireless
unattached to the pangs of reality,
as you had told me that
I was just a fantasy
I knew your heart
had no room for me,
for I knew how your heart
belonged to the birds,
to the trees,
and to the soil
under our feet,
married under
the eyes of madness
bounded by
the love that they feared,
the fearless love
that took you away,
locked you in chains
and buried you in silence,
I can feel your pain
doubled in my nerves,
as I pinned images of you,
images that were puffed by the wind
flying like birds who sought
to stretch their wings in a free open sky,
but were shot at, to gravitate
on the concrete pavement,
to be long gone and long forgotten
and here, I tried and still spanned
the length of the road
where the voices of truth
called to extinguish the pain,
where your feet
stomped and ran
from men in uniforms,
where your blood smear had been,
where my heart melted when I met you.
Oh sweet flightless bird,
I’ll continue to take care of what your heart
had embraced
forever in my arms,
in my heart,
and in my soul.
By Mikhail Enver Requilman
Si Mikhail Enver Requilman ay isang mangingibig, manunulat, at tagamulat sa pahayagang The Warden ng Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa. Sa kanyang mga ordinaryong araw, siya ay isang Mass Communication student sa nasabing pamantasan. At sa kanyang mga di-ordinaryong araw naman, bukod sa pagiging mamamahayag pangkampus, siya rin ay kasalukuyang Secretary-General ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines – Metro Manila.
