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by Carmelita Cochingco Ballesteros.
January 7, 2011
Dear Readers:
Here’s part 2 of “Poems on the Run,” my last column for 2010, published on December 17. I wrote Part 1 while I was three days away from repatriation to the Philippines after working for 10 years as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW). A week before repatriation, I was running on an empty tank trying to squeeze a year’s work in one week.
By the grace of God, I made it home in one piece (!) from Singapore to the Philippines on December 19. Since then, I’ve plunged into an even more hectic schedule compounded by the long Christmas season in the Philippines characterized by gatherings of extended families.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. As my family was driving home late one night, I was flanked on the left by my grandson and on the right by my granddaughter. Both of them were asleep and were pressed close to me as if I were a human pillow. It was uncomfortable, but I thanked God for putting me exactly where I want to be.
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My MA
An original poem by Swarnapala N.B. Methias
Your hands are wrinkled
Your steps are measured
Your toil has been much
Your rewards treasured.
Your womb has borne nine
Your arms cradled more
Your love is like wine
Your forgiveness so pure.
I never told Tata
Those special words three
He left one morning
To heaven to be free.
Why is it so hard
To say what’s inside
Keeping mum to my Mum
To myself I deride.
Perhaps this poem will
Help me to tell
What’s inside my heart
I cannot spell.
I love you Ma
For all that you’ve done
For me and my siblings
You are the ONE.
(Tata is ‘Dad’ in Sinhala)
The Ant and the Bee
by Lee Chee Mun Vincent
(Adapted from “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear)
The Ant and the Bee went to the sea
In a pretty berry-blue boat.
They took some grain, and through many drains
They arrived at the house of the goat.
The Ant and the Bee loved to talk
With the goat about the Stork
Who liked to carry babies on her long beak
To many houses without any leak.
They talked and talked until it was late
In the night, on beds they lay.
They rested until it was day
They said goodbye and went on their way.