Searching for Pablo

Melissa

August 9, 2007

 

In a square inch panel,
We watch her die.
The bushy man pinions her pelvis
to the crimsoned floor.
His barbed thighs
cleave at milky, supple skin,
as his insolent tongue probes,
prods, and trespasses.

Frayed between bones and concrete,
We hear her screams.
Muted by the same
technology that bestowed us 3G,
stayed the specter of AIDS,
and cloned an unsuspecting sheep.
The bushy man snickers, while he squeezes
the twine that stifles her hands.

A peppery liquid fell
From the crack.
With nothing to scratch, she cut
into her palms.
Wishing pain could subdue cruelty.
Wishing she bleeds dry.
 
Outside, the shadows descend
on the Arabian desert. The breeze hip-hops
and tangos over the soil.
Cold toes kissing blisters as it carpets
silhouetted avenues.
A spattering of laughter
awakens the night.  

The  throbbing rod
Pushes inside her.
Inexorable in its single-minded purpose.  
The ache streaks in concentric
pattern from her loins to
her skull, consuming the air around her.
Corrupted by that single thrust,
the climax of all fairy tale stories
abruptly impeded by the words
“they lived happily ever after,”
as the princess falls
to the arms of her prince.
His foul breath treaded on the promise
To the love she left behind.
Her body knew nobody,
yet callused hands now  
Sullies her neck, breasts, navel.
 
As the bushy man thrusts,
She remembers Jun-jun who has
school fees due next week.
 
As the bushy man thrusts,
An image of Mama flashes,
her drooping breasts no longer
holds the juice of life that
sustained all her seven children
even as hunger ravished her
once-lithe arms.

Of the days when they slept with the firewood
remained unlit.
As famished tears blended with the piss
and sweat on the mattress.

Of rendezvousing politicians,
the legs of their pretty mistresses
high up in the air
in homage to his manhood,
in reverence to his pockets
as Inang Filipina,
her flag-like frock
scrunched up to her waist,
get sodomized from behind.
Over and over.

The bushy man ejaculates.
Her belly contracted to deny
an unfamiliar progeny
of dunes and black gold.
She senses it
Shooting up from her vagina,
to her cervix and to
God knows where.
She hears belt being buckled
as she huddles in a
fetal position,
closing her eyes tightly
in supplication to
the diety who ditched her:
"Please,don't let me
bear his child."

From somewhere,

she hears his fading footsteps.
The paved floor creates
a different resonance
from the bamboo slits back home,
upsetting a memory.
Of her mama walking slowly
away after tucking her to bed as
the treacherous bamboo floor
always stirs up the cat.

She reaches out for
the sheets to wash herself
of him, knowing it's
pointless.
She could still smell
The bushy man's stench
from yesterday.

And tomorrow.
Tomorrow, his friends will come.

No longer will she feel
an innocent kiss.
No longer will she welcome
a fleeting touch without cringing.

 

 

P.S.

To "Melissa" who got raped by a fucking Arab in Saudi: You don't know me and I seriously doubt you will ever get to read this but I'm sorry for the nightmare that you're in and for your dreams that we trampled. Vice President Noli de Castro already instructed officials in the Philippine embassy in Saudi to come rescue you. Could you please make way for them? They need space to bend over and pull down their pants as they allow your rapist to butt-fuck them again for the chance to send more like you to their deaths. Oh, did you know your favorite government officials are investigating how you managed to get there? Seems like it's going to be your fault why you got raped.

Posted by searchingforpablo at 3:29 pm | permalink

Previous Comments

i got so pissed when i heard the news too for God’s sake, i have a vagina too. i hate hate hate hate hate really really hate hate hate rapists.

Posted by meloi at August 10, 2007, 8:17 pm

and pablo dear, take that back! heaven knows that i tried so hard to imitate a lost puppy and now you’re saying na maldita ko ug nawong.

that hurts you know. hehe. :p

Posted by meloi at August 10, 2007, 8:20 pm

You would be much more pissed when you see the video. I only caught glimpses of it sa Bandila over Abs-cbn. Of course, it was deliberately blurred, that doesn’t take anything away from the violence.

Lami kaayo luboton ang arabo ug litro na coke!

Posted by isko b. doo at August 10, 2007, 11:45 pm

dili pablo, cactus. uso man ang cactus sa ila kay desert baya…

Posted by Jayclops at August 11, 2007, 10:29 am

Hala. Nakatawa ko sa cactus thingy! Amawa uy. Hahahaha!

Anyway, I agree with what you said “Seems like it’s going to be your fault why you got raped.” Oh yes, i have a vagina too Meloi, you know that. But…

Oh I don’t know. God help me. I am becoming naive to these things.

These things seem to occur every now and then; I wonder if it’s called news.

Posted by teeth at August 11, 2007, 6:40 pm

@jayclops

tama diay noh? dapat cactus kay tunok tunok… syaro di na mangasamad ila almoranas diha! hehehe

@teeth

Gawd! it’s raining vaginas in here. hahaha.

I agree. These things are not new but that just makes it more sad. To think that some of us have been desynthesized by the deluge of information re: rape that we cease to be enraged.
Just because we’ve heard of worse things than what she went through — there are three-year old girls who were sodomized and bled to death after all — we shouldn’t think that they are entitled.
That’s what the rapists (employers, cousins, brothers, fathers, uncles, strangers) think. That they are entitled to your vagina.

Posted by isko b. doo at August 11, 2007, 10:27 pm

It’s not the rape itself that enrages me, it’s easier to accept that pigs exists amongst humans, but it’s the lack of action from our very own people that makes me want to kill–not the rapist (we can cut his dick) but the no-good government officials.

My mom was almost raped when she first worked abroad. She ran away in the middle of the night after some chink groped her while she was sleeping. She went to the Philippine Embassy and the fuckers who ran the office didn’t offer her any help. She ended up getting support from a Muslim NGO and she sued the ’supot’ chink and won the case.

I’ve heard of a Filipina who suffered the same fate as my mom in the Mid East, except that she was raped and ran to the Phil Embassy bleeding and was shooed away.

I haven’t even heard about Melissa’s case until now.

Assholes and rapists are everywhere. We cannot discipline these people. But we should discipline our own.

It’s news like these that make me wish I’m “V”.

Posted by Jap at August 12, 2007, 3:17 pm

Man, i didn’t know that jap. Must have been traumatic.

You’re right though.. killing them is just the easy way out.
How about this: We cut off the dick of the rapists and we make our government officials eat them for brunch?

If I were a dictator, I would soo love that.

Posted by isko b. doo at August 12, 2007, 8:15 pm

“They are entitled to our vagina.”

God help everyone.

Posted by teeth at August 12, 2007, 9:15 pm

Who the hell those aliens think they are? God?

Posted by meloi at August 14, 2007, 9:15 pm

no meloi… they think they’re arabs :P

Posted by isko b. doo at August 18, 2007, 4:00 am

Grabe!!!! na kakainis to’ promise! i have friends dun sa Saudi kahit sila mismong mga piniy magtuttulong tulong haanpin ung Melissa na yun! Mga matatakaw sa laman yang mga yan… Sana mag karoon ng month o annually inspection ang Phil. Embassy sa saudi kung ok ung mga pinoy na nagtratarbaho dun!

Posted by sweetie at August 20, 2007, 11:47 am

this is an excellent poem. i love it. too bad your commenters focused only on the issue at hand and not the literature.

Posted by liz at September 2, 2007, 6:07 am

cool post. ..I can relate well. link tayo bro.txs

Posted by arabian josh at October 8, 2007, 4:03 am

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