What Breaks Your Heart, Manila?

by Mahal Ko Kuya Ko   Oct 16, 2016


Manila, what does it take
to break someone's heart?
A poem?
A night of incessant thoughts?
An unreplied message?
Lowly birds still perch
on your pensive streetlights
and I am a spectator
of your clandestine sorrows and hunger.

Third-world people
had grown tired of Christian beliefs,
and suddenly the Philippines
had become bloody:
vigilante killings, war on drugs,
extrajudicial killings...
Manila, have you ever questioned humanity?

But with this mug
you always had your coffee on,
you're breaking my heart...
I've no time for sad news
and a president who feigns ignorance

for dandelions had stopped
flourishing on my poems.

And I just really miss every coffee
I used to have with you.

    report violation
7


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Latest Comments

  • 7 years ago

    by hiraeth

    Judging Comment:

    This is a political piece that just demands your attention with every verse that grows more and more morose. It's an absolute shame about what's unfolding in the Philippines, Duterte is acting more like a dictator rather than a democratic leader, with the extrajudicial killings of 'drug dealers', the announcement that the country will be severing ties with the United States, which places the country in a delicate area due to this allowing China to be more aggressive with the country. This is a beautiful piece that provokes thought; I'd even liken it to a Banksy piece for its brutal honesty.

  • 7 years ago

    by hiraeth

    I'm glad this won!

  • 7 years ago

    by Golden AnGel Rhapsodist

    CONGRATS! This poem deserved it. ..

  • 7 years ago

    by Em

    So glad I nominated this. Well done, definitely deserved

  • 7 years ago

    by Brenda

    Congratulations on your win!

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