Some Poems that Came out 2013: No One Wants a Girl with Brains and Things We Tell Ourselves After Elections

Thanks to the editors of The Philippines Graphic Magazine. I wasn't able to get a copy of this particular June 14, 2013 issue since National Bookstore may have run out of it that time :(

No One Wants a Girl with Brains

No one wants a girl with brains
just make sure she doesn't burn your bacon
but when she does
raise your voice immediately

make known the vastness of your displeasure

and if for some reason, she causes you to go hungry once more

you may have to go old fashioned on her--

ball your hands into fists

you're sure to get her knees wobbling.

No one wants a girl with brains

you need someone who won't complain

she should smile when you get home late

never to figure out why

you no longer touch her withered prunes

that you're tired, is all

she will ever know.

If you do get a girl with brains
just make sure she doesn't like to use them

she should laugh when you tell her to make a sandwich

(and maybe make you a real one, too)

and solicit your help even when she knows what to do

making you feel needed,

she might just be

the prize among all prizes!

~

Things We Tell Ourselves After Elections

Keep telling yourself
that the masses are the powerful
ones, yeast that works through the whole dough
much more potent than you
in your leathers and power suits
or even you with the still-hot diploma in your hands.

Keep telling yourself
that the masses are the ones that kick ass
at election time, and once more you’ve gotten whopped,
you whose vote couldn’t make a modest dent
into the iron doors of a tomorrow
you can but now accept.

Keep telling yourself
that the masses are not stupid
just a bit drunk on TV, and easy
to manipulate, as all things
that run on empty
tend to be.

Keep telling yourself
all they need is you, and your gift
of information
just maybe a dash of a better
education. Keep telling yourself that
we need just one solution.