The Bullet Wakes from Its Cruel Shell

I dance through air with a deadly grace.

Yet mourn the lives I cannot replace.

Once a vessel of power, now burdened with guilt,

I pierced through dreams, where innocence wilt.

A mother’s love fades into the night,

Leaving children alone, lost in their light.

A fatherโ€™s laugh, now echoes in vain,

His children weep, their hearts filled with pain.

I have tasted the chaos, the cries in the dark,

Each life I extinguish leaves a haunting mark.

In the silence that follows, I hear their despair,

The love that was shattered, the hearts laid bare.

I roll through the streets where justice once roamed,

Now fear grips the souls of those left at home.

With each echoing shot, a story untold,

Of futures forsaken, of warmth turned cold.

Each life I touch, a story ends,

Innocence lost, where justice bends.

For every life taken, a part of me dies,

In the wake of my passage, only silence replies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christine Marie Lim Magpile
Christine Marie Lim Magpile
Christine Marie Lim Magpile is a teacher, book editor-author, and translator. She has a BS Educationโ€“History (cum laude) from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, and is currently studying MA in ๐˜ˆ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜—๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ from the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She is a fellow of the Iligan National Writers Workshop (2024), De la Salle University Young Screenwriters Workshop (2023), La Salle Kritika National Workshop on Art and Cultural Criticism (2019), 6th Angono Writersโ€™ Summer Workshop (2018), the UST National Writersโ€™ Workshop (2008), and the ๐˜“๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ, ๐˜๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ, ๐˜™๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฌ๐˜ข, ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ˆ๐˜ฏ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ (LIRA, 2007 and 2023).

JUST IN

More Stories