death defiling

i asked myself recently:
why do i have a strange feeling we're all going to die?

and it really is a strange feeling 'cause
duh, karl
we all will die. but i insisted on asking anyway

and maybe one reason why
i'm feeling the strange feeling
is 'cause it's too easy to forget that we all will.

anyway,
(wait, notice how i easily dismissed that reminder)
someone dear recently died
and so the subject of death is so real yet again

and at first i thought:
funny how death shuts you up completely and yet
can most forcefully amplify your voice
too. and that after one moment,
what was once were a series of vigils
is now a world paying tribute and a nation mourning and yearning
for days gone by.

and then it occurred to me: that can't be right.
it wasn't your death that handed you a megaphone one last time at your deathbed.
it was your life.


tito ninoy is waiting.