In memory of the hundreds of trash pickers who perished in the garbage slide at the Payatas dumpsite on July 10, 2000
From the skeleton
Of disemboweled mattresses
Bent scrap of metal
You honed to pointed perfection
To stab at the refuse of the world
In this moment’s defeat
You lay down your kalahig
Your weapon mangangalahig
Like the shepherd his crook
And the writer her pen
You and your kalahig
Do you really believe
That you have been created
For the underbelly
Of this city with so little modesty
You do not know
That you are purer
Than the politicians
Cleaner than the clergymen
You do not realize
Your bravery
With that single weapon
In your hand
What treasures have you found
With your kalahig
A twisted fork a spoon
Demonetized coins that cannot buy
Ten pepper corns from the shanty store
Fast-food thrown away for you to eat
Diapers and condoms all wet
A wedding ring a key
Plastic all the plastic
That could gift-wrap the world
To death
You say your name
In the din of spades and backhoes
Cameras recorders microphones
Colliding
NGO workers relief workers
Rescue workers social workers
Church workers volunteer workers
Newscasters unrelenting
Do-gooders unhearing
Swooping
Down at last
On your mountain now an ocean
Of deadly muck
That buried your home
And pregnant wife
A daughter
An infant son
An unborn one
You were going to name Roger Jr.
Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Ma. Ceres P. Doyo has been a journalist for more than 40 years. Her written works have won numerous awards, among them, two National Book Awards for Journalism (2015 and 2022). She writes a weekly column, the “Human Face,” for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
