"Do you love me? I mean really love me. Because if you don't... I'll just have to kill you."
-Sofia in "Vanilla Sky"
Again, you ask if my heart beats for you
I could simply say ‘yes’- yet again
But it sounds condescending
evoked to placate an insecure
if not selfish soul
You are not Sofia-
you have no self
Your self is the self of a million souls-
Sored, poor, scorned, othered, forgotten
Silence, then, is more dignifying
Why should a spoken answer matter?
Is it not enough that
I am right here beside you
when everyone else has left?
Does it not suffice that
I converse in your tongue
and perorate around your dogma?
You can put a tail on me
and I will have no complaint
Your faintest whisper drowns
the most raucous sound
You can cage me in a box
too small for interlopers to get in-
I could not be more free!
I spot you without effort
even in a throng of thousands
Let me give chase to your umbra
Smile and disarm me-
I will turn my back on a world
that abnegates you,
that debases your dream
for the petrichor of plenitude
to take over the fetor of want
for barricades of prejudice
to crash down beyond repair
for bloodshed to stop
for freedom to grow wings
for justice in its purest self
to be like the rain in summer
inseminating the dead earth
that life may spring from favelas
Raunchy movies expended
the lexicon of love
the same way the greed of a few
depleted chance for the many
Rhetoric is depreciated
Mine for you is beyond triviality
It rises above hyperboles
that might plague my speech
Your poverty is my reality
Everything else is theory,
or fallacy, or fraudulence
I shall confront the lies
that distort your truth
I shall not tire telling the poor
they are not blessed
I will abandon fair weather
to struggle with you
when hard rain falls
and violent wind glides across your face
with threats of perdition
Did I –somehow- answer your question?
Author Bio:
Cheryl L. Daytec is a lawyer and educator from the Philippines. For more than half of her life, she has been an activist advocating for peace and human rights. She actively works on issues affecting indigenous peoples and minorities, women, children, the LGBT community, political dissenters, and other marginalized groups. A member of one of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines, she teaches at Saint Louis University in Baguio City, her birthplace.
Her poems- most of which deal with injustice- have been published in magazines in the Philippines and elsewhere. She believes that poetry should articulate the aspirations of the oppressed. She listens voraciously to the music of the 60s and 70s which, according to her, connects to the soul of humanity and expresses its aspirations for peace and equity. She loves gardening and making beads, as well as exploring natural wonders.
Aside from the Philippines, she lived in Europe and the United States. She considers herself a citizen of the world.
-Sofia in "Vanilla Sky"
Again, you ask if my heart beats for you
I could simply say ‘yes’- yet again
But it sounds condescending
evoked to placate an insecure
if not selfish soul
You are not Sofia-
you have no self
Your self is the self of a million souls-
Sored, poor, scorned, othered, forgotten
Silence, then, is more dignifying
Why should a spoken answer matter?
Is it not enough that
I am right here beside you
when everyone else has left?
Does it not suffice that
I converse in your tongue
and perorate around your dogma?
You can put a tail on me
and I will have no complaint
Your faintest whisper drowns
the most raucous sound
You can cage me in a box
too small for interlopers to get in-
I could not be more free!
I spot you without effort
even in a throng of thousands
Let me give chase to your umbra
Smile and disarm me-
I will turn my back on a world
that abnegates you,
that debases your dream
for the petrichor of plenitude
to take over the fetor of want
for barricades of prejudice
to crash down beyond repair
for bloodshed to stop
for freedom to grow wings
for justice in its purest self
to be like the rain in summer
inseminating the dead earth
that life may spring from favelas
Raunchy movies expended
the lexicon of love
the same way the greed of a few
depleted chance for the many
Rhetoric is depreciated
Mine for you is beyond triviality
It rises above hyperboles
that might plague my speech
Your poverty is my reality
Everything else is theory,
or fallacy, or fraudulence
I shall confront the lies
that distort your truth
I shall not tire telling the poor
they are not blessed
I will abandon fair weather
to struggle with you
when hard rain falls
and violent wind glides across your face
with threats of perdition
Did I –somehow- answer your question?
Author Bio:
Cheryl L. Daytec is a lawyer and educator from the Philippines. For more than half of her life, she has been an activist advocating for peace and human rights. She actively works on issues affecting indigenous peoples and minorities, women, children, the LGBT community, political dissenters, and other marginalized groups. A member of one of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines, she teaches at Saint Louis University in Baguio City, her birthplace.
Her poems- most of which deal with injustice- have been published in magazines in the Philippines and elsewhere. She believes that poetry should articulate the aspirations of the oppressed. She listens voraciously to the music of the 60s and 70s which, according to her, connects to the soul of humanity and expresses its aspirations for peace and equity. She loves gardening and making beads, as well as exploring natural wonders.
Aside from the Philippines, she lived in Europe and the United States. She considers herself a citizen of the world.
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