Sharing a poem from my favorite professor, Prof. Merlie Alunan
Two dolls in rags and tatters,
one missing an arm and a leg,
the other blind in one eye -
I grabbed them from her arms,
“No”, I said, “they cannot came”.
Each tight luggage
I had packed
only for the barest need:
no room for sentiment or memory
to clutter with loose ends
my stern resolve. I reasoned,
even a child must learn
she cannot take
what must be left behind.
And so the boat turned seaward,
a smart wind blowing dry
the stealthy tears I could not wipe.
Then I saw- rags, tatters and all-
there among the neat trim packs,
the dolls I ruled to leave behind.
Her silence should have warned me
she knew her burdens
as I knew mine:
her clean white years unlived-
and paid my price.
She battened on a truth
she knew I too must own:
when what’s at stake
is loyalty or love,
Hers are the true rights.
Her own faiths she must keep, not I.
