Hopeless

Children are the hope of the world. Supposedly. Lately, I’ve been hearing news items that in one way or another broke my spirit. Do these children really deserve to experience the harsh reality of life? I have my answer, and perhaps you have yours too.

Last Saturday, I stumbled upon Missing Child a thread in PinoyExchange. A young girl was reportedly missing for days and the thread starter is asking for help if anyone had hints or information about her whereabouts. As I followed the replies, the location of the child was revealed. And it is a place where no parents would want their child to be discovered in. She was found lifeless and in a state of decomposition already. Everyone is crying for justice. But justice nowadays is very elusive. Hopefully the government can take necessary measures to make our environment a more child-friendly one.

This is not the first case. Similar cases had been reported already countless of times. Some were resolved, others remained unresolved. A few years ago, this crime pushed me to pen down a poem. I really condemn any form of child abuse. But how can we control that? We can only hope and pray for the betterment of the innocents.

Discovering My Sister, Gretel

Longest night ever, I pray
for her safe return;
can't blink
or she'll be missed.

Behind poker-faced searchers,
I bite my lips,
open my eyes wide,
and push aside brambles.
Did she lose the breadcrumb trail?

Then – a banshee wail,
confused stillness,
echo of palpitations
and a bloody shoe offered
up for inspection.

All eyes follow a trail
of dark pebbles
from shoe
to confirmation.

/totomai

Later that night, I watched an episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya about the life story of a child pimp. Its pretty scary to think that its actually happening. Sometimes, you can’t believe that real-life stories are more complicated and harsher than fictional ones. Children like them continue to struggle in finding ways to fill their empty stomachs. Others, instead of going to school, went to vend flower leis, or worse, their bodies for a peso or two.

A line in No Doubt’s Sixteen

“These children, they’re really not bad most of them. Just products of rotten neighborhood and bad family situation”,

aptly summarizes the plight of these juveniles.

Of course, just like us, they also desire for a better life. They have dreams too. But life isn’t always fair.

Dream House

I can make my own ---
not the houses sketched by architects
and arranged by interior designers.

I do not need a thermal roof,
a couple of rusty GI sheets
with used rubber tires as weights would do.

I care less about marble floors,
French windows and sliding doors;
I'll use smoked plywood
and discarded hollow blocks.

This is the dream I have every night
as I curl like a fetus,
in the careless womb of the city
wrapped in a blanket of newspapers.

/totomai

These scenarios are not only seen and felt in third-world countries. Here in Japan, in a span of two weeks, I’ve been reading killings of innocent ones, but what I find strange is that they are killed by their own parents. Check this case and this one. Totally unacceptable and unforgivable, in my opinion.

Children all over the world deserve a place for them to play, be safe and savor the goodness of the world, if an ounce of it is still left. Remember, we were young once too.

/totomai
10/07/08