For You

15

Naga is a 5th class city in the province of Cebu, Philippines. On September 20, 2018, a disastrous landslide took the lives of 77 villagers, and with
the count of 8 missing bodies.  It said and reported to be caused by heavy rainfall, however there is a quarry near the area that the villagers and the  locals of Cebu strongly points out to as a the trigger and main cause.

the treasure of naga

The Treasures of Naga

be warned for the
earth loaths greed
—a message
forgotten by those
who savagely dig
the treasures
they do not own

a town's mountain
seeked by all
not for its beauty
not for its men
but for what is
hidden deep
below the ground;
the treasure of naga
they call it

the treasure
the treasure
the treasure

shouts the starving seeker

as dirty vicious hands
unearthed the
hidden that was never
meant to be found;
tainting the
untouched soil
with heavy marks
of misplaced hunger
and callous minds
—yet escaping the
theft without
paying the price

the innocents
sleeps beneath the
exploited land
the children, the old
—their roof
and their wall
mounded on
the mountain's fold;
where a father of two
stands on his feet
as he wait for
his wife
and where a
young boy runs
building parts
of his life

but the ground that
used to savour
the little footsteps
of the young boy
had become his
own graveyard
cold and bitter
from sorrow
and dead dreams

—at 6 a.m where
orange hue sunlight
peaked at its
best beginning
the earth breathed
its wrath upon the
wrong doors
fiery at covering
beating hearts
and leaving
77 lungs suffocated
six feet
under the ground

homes mauled by
the inevitable
crashing
consequences
powerful voices
smothered
before it could
even proclaim
greatness
—it was not forseen
that the land would
take the life it
birthed and nurtured

do not forget
do not forget
do not forget

cries the dead

do not forget
do not forget
do not forget

shouts the father

who's life was flipped
—his wife now awaits
for him to find
their children's body;
take us home
the wife pleads as
her cold arms held
her babies
deep under the debris

to the indebted
who had not yet paid
the price
to the felons
hiding in the shadow
to the cause
who played blind
of the effects

do not forget

you burried the real
treasures of naga.