Caveat to the Voter

(Philippine Elections 2007)

Today's totalitarian wears and plays
the populist -
among other robes,
costume of a sinner's past,
makes for more drama

Morality is a badge
only displayed by the crook
performing compassion
as if by the book

Mistake not honesty nor sincerity
for the act of confession
understand that stupidity
has no place in any act of mercy

Forgiveness is not forgetfulness,
ignorance is not innocence
Hope is neither something
to wish for, nor something granted

Its what we give ourselves
when we decide to.

Hi-tech/Lo-tech

Touch outside skin
is either new sense
or nonsense

New signs still rely
on old lines
and I ask:
Is repetition made novel
in real time?

Freed by new possibility
but lacking new ability
today is a trap
between yesterday
and the past

The old and the young
think each other
the fool
debating the rules
but not minding
the tools

On Wholeness

when there are no longer such things
contradiction, disturbance -

the incongruous: are figments
imagined opposition

all things being in themselves:
a complexity of relations

the strategy of contrast,
arbitrary classification,
mediating meaning,
stifling imagination.

The Anesthetized As Free

Sometime
when caring
came to be
considered a fuss,
and friendliness
unwelcome familiarity,
handshakes
recognized less and less
as courtesy,
but more likely
contaminant,
contagious,
is just like the time
we solved the problem
of Freedom.

An empty self
devoid of others,
light,no longer
weighed down.

The truly sovereign
needs no one,and owes nobody,
and the trade off seems fair
(or does it?)

The prized right
to be left alone,
even if in constant fear,
or loneliness.

As such,
freedom is really
a wall
bounding the self in
and others out.

Freedom: A Commitment

Unfettered,
freedom
takes root

The bravest,
remain
unflinchingly
compassionate,
ever able to trust,
ever willing to hope.

This I learned:
Freedom lies not
always in leaving
but often enough
in deciding
to stay.