Que Horror Poem by RIC BASTASA

i was then a passive
spectator, long time ago,
as a child, gathering wild
guavas in the far away
hill, overlooking the sea
an middle aged woman
walked towards the waves
without looking back
and there drowned herself.

later it was known that
her husband left her for
another woman,

some years back an office
mate committed suicide by
drinking rat poison

reason: he was diagnosed with
hepatitis C and he could not
take it,

and then grandpa was murdered
by his young wife finding that
she gets only 1/4 of his fortune
right after the
marriage,

there is always this shock that
we keep to ourselves
as i kept mine
and nightmares come
as part of this growing
up

and stories keep on
creeping in the beds of
of our minds
creeping under our
feet as we keep
shrugging off all these
unwanted memories

i am disturbed by another
image of old Papa who kicked
old Mama and then when
Mama died he kept her
picture on his chest while
crying in bed

ah, humans, passions,
brewing anger, regrets,
and those which still
want to be forgotten
those that they carry
in their graves but
still keep on rising
from their pantheons of
stones and cement

haunting us all, until
i finally resolved all these
by putting all of them in
writing, lest i forget,
they too must read.