CONTAGION. After Miriam Santiago called the people behind Edsa 2 "insignificant," PDI reader Blanche Gallardo wrote a letter to the PDI Editor. Gallardo's  letter soon became the springboard for columnist Conrad de Quiros' essay Signature Folly. It is this essay that spawned the writing of this poem by Bar T. Quiero, all the way from Hawaii.
In MeMiriam
[ because the O is gone ]
by Bar T. Quiero
 
Madame Senator,
sorry for barging 
into your good office.
I am aware how 
occupied you are
gobbling up 
anonymous little insects
and inferior life forms
dwelling in makeshift 
shacks from Iloilo
to San Juan
to Mandaluyong.
Your temper tantrums
confirm what you 
really are-  a spider
of the black widow kind.
 
And you know what?
During my meal
this morning, 
a housefly came down
lapping on a salmon head,
left-over of my cat 
in his latest foray to a 
neighbor's kitchen.
"Excuse me Sir," I said
to him, "May I interrupt
your business for a moment?
I only wanted to ask-  
Which is more pleasing 
to your nose, the smell 
of a decaying fish
or the smell of politicians
filling-up their pockets
more than what they 
deserve to take?
 
 
Which is more pleasing 
to your nose, the smell
of an out-of-order toilet 
bowl filled up to the brim 
or the smell of politicians
suffering from foot and 
mouth disease?"
 
The fly looked at me as if 
in a state of shock, shook his
head pushing the needle
of the Richter scale to 6,
flapped his wings stirring dust
around him, 
all of a sudden, 
he took off and zoomed away!
 
Madame Senator, since 
the fly left without any word, 
Will you answer the same
questions for me?
 

 
Bar T. Quero is a pseudonym chosen by a Likhaan Online reader from Hawaii. He has been published in the Anthology of the Bamboo Ridge Press, and the Philippine Free Press.
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