Of Folklores And Thunder
POSTED AT 11:13 PM

lessismore

Because I have my left leg swollen like hell, I’m sad. I’m not sad anymore that I’ve lost my phone to electronic-repair malpractice. The fact that hundreds of patients die everyday due to medical malpractice somehow gives me relief. Had I been the phone, I could have lost more, I mean everything. My left leg is not everything to me, but it is more than the phone plus the right leg. I can manage to walk with a crippled right leg, I know because I’ve been through that several times. It may sound funny but that’s a proven fact, at least in me.

 

Three days and counting, I am starting to feel anxious about the nature of this injury. My mother too is close to being convinced that this is more than simpleng pilay. So she considers the help of a hilot or a tawas. That brings me to sadness. Because my mother, amidst the fast-changing internet generation, is still stuck to the antiquity of unfounded folklores. I told her: “Ma, I don’t want to be another Armando Castro.” She said, “what Armando Castro are you talking about? Your knowledge of trivial history won’t cure you!” And then I answered back irascibly, “at least such knowledge can prevent me from being killed”. “Sometimes, reluctance can kill”, she concluded. After that, she turned a deaf ear to my screaming from the room because of pain.

 

I demand a hospital confinement.

 

Now here’s a poem I’ve been meaning to write since I developed keraunophobia. Keraunophobia, says Wikipedia, is the morbid fear of thunder and lightning. I specifically fear the thunder, especially when it is rolled in the key of F.

 

paano pipigilan ang kulog

lolito go

 

may katahimikang namamahay sa dilim ng gabi

na sa isang iglap ay

nabasag

nang mabitiwan ko ang bitbit na tasang

may lamang hihiguping kape.

.

kumulog, kumidlat. kumislot ang

ugat. at muli pa

nanumbalik sa alaala ang tutang

napaslang ng initsa kong plapla

nitong nagdaang bagong taon

mula noon,

 

lagi na akong takot sa kulog

sa kalatog, sa alinmang pumuputok

o sumasabog.

 

at nang makita ko ang mga bubog

sa sahig, hindi ko maiwasang maalaala

ang nagkadurog-durog na buto

ng kawawang aso.

ang basag niyang bungong

umuusok.

 

nagmantsa na yata sa gunita

ang dugo ng apdo. ang atay at bituka.

ang amoy ng pulbura. nagmantsa na yata

ang halakhak ng lasing. ang hagikhik

ng watusi. ang palahaw ng kuwitis.

sabi ko, lilipas din ito tulad ni nora aunor

na naglahong parang talang nalagot.

 

matatahimik din ako.

matatahimik din ako.

 

matatahimik din ang tuta.

lalo pa’t  tinipon ko siya

noong malagim na tagpong iyon

ang mga piraso ng kanyang

madugong bangkay

ay maingat kong pinulot

at isinilid sa kahon. sabi ng matanda

pagtirikan ko raw ng kandila sa kalsada

at pagkatapos ay bigyan ng disenteng libing.

sa gayo’y matatahimik siya

at hindi na tatahol pa

sa aking paghimbing. subalit,

 

hindi. hindi pala ganoon kadali.

 

kumulog na naman

kagabi..

 

 

What? This is not about keraunophobia, dear bum. This is more of paranoiah.

 

Well, yeah.

 

Currently listening to: Jake Shimabukuro
Currently watching: Daisy Siete. (seriously)
Currently feeling: kating-kating gumala