Marikina

The sunset is nearing as the train rolls along its tracks

With people in its carriages, looking far beyond,

And there’s a couple at the back, displaying affections

Without shame, without restraint in the noises they make.

It was a warm Saturday afternoon, and the day is ending,

I was there, reading, as the rumbles of steel to steel

Echoes in grumbles and groans inside the cars

Of the longitudinal mobile, roaring towards the valley

Inside the train is a place laden with the noise of thoughts,

And there, the corridors are lit with shrieking whispers

Of issues, concerns, of the love they have gained and lost,

And of the sounds of the couple frolicking in delight near the door

She never left my mind one moment, and I, I was thinking of her,

As the evening sets in  to the gleaming watch of lady moonlight,

In the starless summer sky of Metro Manila’s merciless fumes,

And the florid detail of the spring that begins worlds away from here.

I was thinking of her as I walk through the artificial bridges,

As I was alighting the train, as I was clutching my ticket,

As I was pressing along the bustling crowds of mall-goers,

Workers, children, shoppers, and day-to-day random strangers,

I was thinking of her, of what we have done, and all the happiness

That we’ve enjoyed, and the lies we have to endure,

The memories we’ve created, and all of it sunk that I’m never

Ever going to be the same to her again because I left

I left towards a better place, and for the greater good,

Even as I left the place, the emptiness seized me as the void

Where she used to reside seemed to shudder in longing

As I thought of the coming days of her vivid absence,

This must be pain, I thought, but far from the horrid, unbearable

Agony of helplessness and suicidal self-immolation;

It was like the pain of the train tracks as everything leaves

Its path, without word, without say, just a simple goodbye

To everything that has been done, and the memories,

Wishing all the happiness to her whom, as my muse,

I will sorely miss.

:)