“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations)  

(Para kay Luzviminda sa gitna ng aking paghihinagpis…)

I am losing my hungering soul
among burdened faces of my broken people,
breathing and excreting the anguish
of destitution and irrational anxiety…

I could no longer feel that heat
of warm bodies down the bus and train stations,
or see the glow of faces at the crowded park
and shopping malls…

Everyone is tired, I suppose;
everyone is thirsting for authentic freedom
and happiness amid the pervading maze
of social unrests and unresolved issues…

And I, for instance, am already tired of being human
unable to grasp the absurd reality of being a Filipino:
what it means to live and exist in this particular country
in this cold and politically troubled society…

*Republished from “Songs of My Troubled Land” (a chapbook of poems) by Danny C. Sillada.

Poet-painter-philosopher-critic-performance artist from Mindanao; obtained BA Philo., STB and Pastoral Theology at UST, Manila; left the seminary before ordination to priesthood; pursued MBA at Ateneo Graduate School of Business, Makati; resigned from promising career in the corporate world to become full-time artist and literary writer.