“…Since [Duterte] took office just over a month ago, more than 420 people have been killed, 154 by vigilantes, the rest by the military and the police. …All were murdered in cold blood.” ~ The New York Times, 5 August 2016
and whither the soul
which I become uncertain of
is it the watery star
of the squid’s tentacles
that elusive bouquet
trawling and luring
in time with the tide
is it the star
that seals its mouth
upon the dust of every
bloodstained road
or the prayer breathed
through yellowed curtains
and widows’ veils
whither the soul’s shanty
in these dark times,
in those dark streets
where bodies perish
where their splayed limbs
form dark pointed stars
whither the good breath
the body used to make
snuffed out gone under lips
stitched shut— what mute
star could witness now
without recourse to law
In response to Via Negativa: Vessel.