A GLASS OF COLD WATER
Everybody calls me young, beautiful, wonderful. Am I?
Look at my hair, my lips, my red rosy cheeks and a pair of
blinkering eyes. I remember, somebody says that I look like
my mother. But that when she was young. Now, I am much
lovelier than she is. I’m a mortal Venus. Oops! What time is
it? I must get ready for the party! Beep-beep…!A-huh! Here
they are! Yes, I’m coming! "Child, are you still there?" "Hmp!
That’s my mama" "Child, are you still there? Will you please
get me a glass of cold water?" "Mama, I’m in a hurry!" "Please
child, try to get me a glass of cold water." "Mama, please, try
to get it on your own." "Please child, try to get me a glass of
cold water!" At the party, I danced and danced the whole
night. You see, I can’t leave the party at once. I have to
danced with everybody who proposed to me. At last, the party
is over. I’m very tired. Very, very tired. So, I went home to tell
mama what happened. "Mama, I’m home! It’s very quiet.
"Mama, I’m home!" Nobody answers. Where is she? I look for
her in the sala, but she’s not there. Where is she? A-huh! In
the kitchen! I saw my mama, lying down on the floor, dead.
With a glass on her hand. I remember, she tried to get it. Oh,
God, just for the glass of cold water! Mama! Mama! Oh,
Mama!
BAD GIRL
Hey! Every Body seems to be staring at me… You! You! All
of you! How dare you to stare at me? Why? Is it because I’m
a bad girl? A bad girl I am, A good for nothing teen ager, a
problem child? That’s what you call me! I smoke. I drink. I
gamble at my young tender age. I lie. I cheat, and I could even
kill, if I have to. Yes, I’m a bad girl, but where are my parents?
You! You! You are my good parents? My good elder brother
& sister in this society where I live? Look…look at me…What
have you done to me? You have pampered and spoiled me,
neglected me when I needed you most! Entrusted me to a
yaya, whose intelligence was much lower than mine! While
you go about your parties, your meetings and gambling
sessions… Thus… I drifted away from you! Longing for a
fathers love, yearning for a mothers care! As I grow up,
everything change! You too have change! You spent more
time in your pokers, mahjong tables, bars and night clubs.
You even landed on the headline of the newspaper as crook,
peddlers and racketeers. Now, you call my name; accuse me
in everything I do to myself? Tell me! How good you are? If
you really wish to ensure my future, then hurry….hurry back
home! Where I await you, because I need you… Protect me
from all evil influences that will threaten at my very own
understanding… But if I am bad, really bad…then, you’ve got
to help me! Help me! Oh please…Help me!

I WISH I WERE NOT BORN
I walked on tiptoed. Dad must be home now. How my
heart bleed when Mom left him for abroad. No amount of
mom's explanation could appease my anger. Why did she do
this? My poor Dad! Now, I see every reason why he has to
come home late, why he has to drink. He must, I even told
myself. He deserves to give way to his emotions.
I walked quietly and slowly turned in the door knob. The
greatest secret unfolded before my naked eyes. I caught Dad
in a very compromising situation with our driver. My whole
world shattered; my knees trembled. Discovery even made it
more shocking. Dad is a homosexual! What is this? I shouted.
I wish I were not born. Damn you! And I ran as fast as I could.
That was many years ago. I wanted to end my life. I was like
a little kitten with no one to turn to. Helpless and confused I
started to pick up every piece of my broken life. The father
with whom I should feel secure and protected failed me a
hundred times. He did not have the arms to protect me from
harm. Instead he brought me shame and untold misery. The
mother whom I need to embrace to strengthen me and love
me left. Parents, why do you fail me? Where else can we find
solace in our dark moments of despair? What have you
done?
HOOKED IN DRUG
My hands, my arms, my head, my body. I am shivering. I am
trembling, what is happening. Yeah, mom's jewelry box. I need it. I
must get it. Yes, I need several thousand of pesos to sustain me, to
give way to my vice. Do you hear that? I need money for cocaine, I am
helpless drug dependent. It started out with a simple invitation to
experience what is new. Little just little, once just once ... until I started
yearning for it. Until I find out I cannot stand without having it more
often.
Dad is too busy with his political career, wooing people to vote
for him in a congressional seat in our province. Mom was equally
occupied to grace the local dailies for her charitable projects left and
right. I was left alone all to myself. It was only yaya who kept me
company, pampering my every need. Cars, money, good time, all I
wanted. Name them, I get them. Tired with all these I looked for more
until I explored drugs with Fred, my friend. I started to change from
good reserved individual to an out-going, happy go lucky. I became an
elusive lawbreaker with dad and mom's influence.
What? Do you know if this ever made happy? No, I am not. I
want peace. I don't and cannot find peace. The urge to use drug
becomes so strong and irresistible. This is the best escape I find over
the emptiness and unworthiness of my wasted, meaningless and
aimless existence. Do you understand I want to change but I cannot.
All I need is to end my life. This is truly a useless life. Goodbye
beautiful life, beautiful world. Goodbye Dad and Mom I don't deserve
you (bang,bang).
 AM I TO BE BLAMED?
They’re chasing me, they’re chasing, no they must not catch
me, I have enough money now, yes enough for my starving
mother and brothers.
Please let me go, let me go home before you imprisoned
me. Very well, officers? take me to your headquarters. Good
morning captain! no captain, you are mistaken, I was once a good
girl, just like the rest of you here. Just like any of your daughters.
But time was, when I was reared in slums. But we lived honestly,
we lived honestly in life. My, father, mother, brothers, sisters and
I. But then, poverty enters the portals of our home. My father
became jobless, my mother got ill. The small savings that my
mother had kept for our expenses were spent. All for our daily
needs and her needed medicine. One night, my father went out,
telling us that he would come back in a few minutes with plenty of
foods and money, but that was the last time I saw him. He went
with another woman. If only I could lay my hands on his neck I
would wring it without pain until he breaths no more. If you were
in my place, you’ll do it, won’t you Captain? What? you won’t still
believe in me?. Come and I’ll show you a dilapidated shanty by a
railroad. Mother, mother I’m home, mother? Mother?!. There
Captain, see my dead mother. Captain? There are tears in your
eyes? Now, pack this stolen money and return it to the owner.
What good would this do to my mother now? She’s already gone!
Do you hear me? she’s already gone. Am I to be blamed for the
things I have done?
BASTARD
Penoy, Balot. . .Penoy, Balot. Yes Penoy, Balot has been
my means of livelihood. I am _____. Please listen to my story.
Like you we may be both victims of circumstances. I was born out
a wedlock to a young colegiala who swayed off her feet when she
became madly in love with a young man of the flickerville.
Bastard, bastard, that's hoe they called me. Society condemned
me for a crime not of my own making but just a mistake by destiny.
I have never felt what a father's love was and worst of them too
much misery drove my mother out of her sanity. I was oftentimes
beaten mercilessly for every little misdeed. One evening I got
home late. Right at the door mother was there with her long stick.
Without a word she hit me mercilessly.
"Please, mother, stop it. I beg you." I was alt\ready bleeding until
I could no longer take it. Before I knew it, I felt blood oozing on
my forehead. Crimson Blood!
"Mother, why do you do this to me."
But that didn't stop her. She got the bolo and was about to strike
me that I ran as fast as I could to save my life. All i know was a
speeding car went between us. .
.SHHHHHHHHHH. When I turned my back I saw Inay lay
helplessly. "Inay", all I could say. I ran back to embrace the lifeless
body of Inay.
"Good lord! Why did you permit this- You are my mother. Inay, I
love you inspite of what has been.