The mosquito and the scheme of things

July 30, 2007

I woke up in the dark from the incessant buzzing
Of the mosquito hovering above me,
And immediately felt a sharp pang on my left arm
Undoubtedly from her bite.
As I scratched it, I looked down irritably
Towards the mosquito coil that was glaring red and
consuming itself up a moment ago,
And all I could see is the dark floor.

Ah!….right.

The mosquito continued buzzing,
Stupidly reminding me of the roar of planes
From some World War II black-and-white movie.
Then the buzzing suddenly stopped.
I felt pain on the same spot where I just scratched,
I made sure she had her fill then slapped my
Left arm a little harder than I would like,
And pray that she’s dead.
I waited for any sign that would tell me
If I didn’t pray enough,
And just when I almost drifted back to sleep,
Just when I couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore,
She started to sing again.
I can almost hear her laughing at me
As my arm had stung again to remind
Me of my futility.
I was thinking of turning the lights on
And lighting the mosquito coil but then I
Have to stand up, put my slippers on,
Find the match…

(not to mention walking across the room
Opposite my bed to where the light switch is).

So I just groped for my blankets and
Pulled it up over my head,
Totally covering myself.
Hah! There’s no way the vampire
Can suck my blood now!

Now I can rest…
If only I can do something about this heat!
Beads of sweat has started on my forehead,
My armpits are getting sticky,
And I’m starting to get really uncomfortable…
I’m sure there’s an apt metaphor to lend
Support to some philosophy or belief
About this situation,
But it escapes me at the moment,
Besides, I blanked out after that,
From too much thinking I guess….

 

 

 

Higher cause

April 18, 2007

 

If you're a government worker and you think about retiring anytime this year, you might lay down on that plan for a while.

It seems that bright boys in Congress dipped into the retirement payment of state workers worth P3.6 billion and realigned it for something more consequential — to nearly double their pork barrel allocation from P6.24 billion in the 2006 budget to P11.445 billion this year.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya was quoted by the Inquirer as saying that his office submitted P6.2 billion but it was increased by the bicameral committee (composed of both the Senate and the House of Representative).

“From an initial glance at the budget, the P3.6 billion came from the retirement pay of government workers,” he said.

Simply put, if the Department of Budget could not find another source to reimburse the retirement pay, about 8,000 government workers who are due to retire this year won't get anything.

I guess the retiring government employees would have to sacrifice this bit of inconvenience for the country. State workers already spent their whole lives in the service of the public, why not extend their service after retirement? Don't be such selfish ingrates as to deny your retirement pay from our distinguished representatives. I mean, where's our sense of patriotism?

After all, our legislators are only doing this for the benefit of their constituents. Forget that the timing is suspect since it's election season; forget reports that as much as 30 percent in commission from the projects approved by the legislators goes to their pockets; forget that project allocation by Congress is already redundant to the duty of local government units to identify and implement projects within their boundaries.

That's just talk man. And talk, just like pirated DVDs from china, is cheap.

Petchay

April 17, 2007

I couldn't let this one pass.

How quickly we forget. Rep. Prospero Pichay is gunning for a Senate seat when just a few months ago he filed a resolution to convene the Lower House into a constituent assembly to change the 1987 Constitution. While he toed the administration line (lie?) that the changes would revolve around economic provisions, the real intent was palpable — to eliminate the "obstructionist" Senate, which admittedly has been a thorn in the side of Malacanang.

Now, he wants us to install him into the very institution he sought to abolish? What hypocrisy!

Ang pichay hindi tinatanim sa Senado, kundi sa lupa.

F#@K IT!

loved this pun, thought i'd share it…

"Uncle Jim," by Peter Meinke:

What the children remember about Uncle Jim
is that on the train to Reno to get divorced
so he could marry again
he met another woman and woke up in California.
It took him seven years to untangle that dream
but a man who could sing like Uncle Jim
was bound to get in scrapes now and then:
he expected it and we expected it.

Mother said, It's because he was the middle child,
And Father said, Yeah, where there's trouble
Jim's in the middle.

When he lost his voice he lost all of it
To the surgeon's knife and refused the voice box
They wanted to insert. In fact he refused
Almost everything. Look, they said,
It's up to you. How many years
Do you want to live? And Uncle Jim
Held up one finger.

The middle one.