Neighbor's quarrel

Ignoring the commotion is hard
to do as voices ring and
elevate to shrilled crescendo
and emotions ran in frenzied
clangs of vindictives --

Awhile trying to keep a straight face,
unaffected and rigid to the
idea that I hear yet don't
mind and keep myself
detached to the reality of the strife.

LAPU-LAPU SA SENTIMO

Am looking for Lapu-lapu
not his body, nor the fish
named after him nor any
statue erected after him --
but his place in our currency.

Am searching for Lapu-lapu
wondering why he is no longer
a part of the loose change
jiggling in my pocket --
a castanet in my ears.

Am scrounging for Lapu-lapu and
his demise from our
currency equivalence and
the stark reality of the
slow eclipse of our economy.

Am sitting here, forlorned
and sad while wishing for
Lapu-lapu to emerge back and
capture the reins of
economic governance.

Lapu-lapu, a humble centavo
of my battered people in disarray
leaving us with the dark reality
and financial uncertainty baring even
after your victorious battle early
one April morning in the beaches of Mactan.