.. Under The Most Stressful Circumstances.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

before mother died
she had turned into a very sensitive old woman.

neighbors call her cranky but i know she was just too concerned
about the needs of those who cannot afford it.

going to the city she saw a very silent man whose vision went beyond
the jeepney windows towards the far away shores perhaps to another island of the peninsula.

' i have money from my son. If you need it you can have it' she offers.

the man smiles, wryly, telling her, 'my wife just died in the hospital and i am looking for a cheaper coffin'

the family had always been at war with each other. Brother suspects that
sister is taking advantage of an old mother, not telling the rest of the siblings
about the true financial state and the expenses would have to be justified item per item.

the refrigerator is not filled with fruits, most are meat stuffed in the freezer and red wine is not found there. Father is a drunkard and kicks mother when she passes by the door.

Age is cruel. It does not remember love. Memory fades and never asks what is happening.

before mother died i held her hand and told her an angel is waiting to serve as her guide when she enters the gates of heaven.

then she smiles, tightly gripped my hand, and then finally loosening it, as though i was the butterfly which she is setting free for me to flutter finally outside the glass window of the government hospital.

i always remember this matter.
the family cracks. shattered. and most of us
wish each other dead.

however, i understand all these.
This is the law of nature.
we are meant to scatter, otherwise there is no world.

no stars will be born unless there shall be a big bang
of whatever we do not really understand.

meanwhile, the house has to be sold, money to be shared
and then we all part ways.

as simple as that, my brother says it as though he had studied fully
well what history is and where it must matter.

when my sister got crazy, we all visited her inside her room.
and then we feel one family again. I think, we are crazier than her.

we need to take the wrong medication, have the prescription of
the notorious physician. It will be a class suit. A family one once again in defending its common interest.

for what is true is that, we are enemies now, but when you have another enemy, we become brothers again against that common enemy.

this i love. coping up with all of you. always re-configuring what is best under the most stressful circumstances.