Ode to the Philippines (A Re-write) #Philippines#independenceday#arawngkalayaan

Ode to the Philippines (A Re-write)
#Philippines#independenceday#arawngkalayaan

Oh, my dearest Philippines, your rich and diverse heritage and culture

has made you the young yet dynamic country that you are today

Manila is your heart, where the iconic Luneta park is located

it’s a hyperactive city, vibrant and vivacious

with its high temperature and high humidity, we get disconnected

your walls are adorned, screaming for freedom and equality

by these colorful graffitis reflective of the youth’s jubilant spirit

as the hope of our motherland, says our national hero; the great Dr. Jose Rizal

I too was once like these youths, yearning for change, simply change

back in the 90’s; a young college student, I thought I was

going to be a lawyer defending the poor and the unfortunate

though a greater part of my youth screams of pen and paper

in Mendiola, I trudge the University belt with a screaming mind

for change, though looking back 25 years after

no slightest idea of how that change may change

and today’s headline reminds me of how we were taught

to write news story straightforward with no running around the bush

nor even a hint of personal grievances

it’s a different story now, as COVID 19 hits the headline

running over to three months

bringing our tally of infected patients to more than twenty thousand

and counting

our economy is in jeopardy, it hits rock bottom recently

our exports of agricultural products have halted

not even our over 200 species of mammals and world’s longest discontinuous coastline

could be a remedy to our dying economy

oh, my dearest Philippines, you survived a hundred years

of Spanish colonization

then followed by the Japanese invasion

not to mention the American occupation

you made it through many wars

great volcanic eruptions

and the greatest typhoons

COVID is just nothing but a speck of something

that will

make you greater, better and grander as ever

dear PH, we will rise again, we will be great again

and together we stand victorious amidst COVID 19.

P.S.

My beloved country, the Philippines is celebrating today its 122 Independence Day.
Independence Day or  Araw ng Kasarinlan also Araw ng Kalayaan. An annual national holiday in the Philippines observed on 12 June, commemorating the Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain on 12 June 1898.