I know what you did.
You can hide behind all that silver and gold,
But I can see the ugly and rotten black behind
All that made up beauty.
I know what you did.
You promised to make me happy,
That with you I’ll never be lonely.
I really thought you were the one, you know?
I mean, it wasn’t that hard.
I had always been easily attracted
To brilliant minds,
And boy, were you brilliant.
How you made love to my brain.
But the brain is a deceitful friend.
Had I looked into your heart,
I would have seen that you didn’t have one.
I would have seen that inside you was
A black hole that sucked everything good.
Inside you was a Pandora’s box that released
All evil out into the world.
A man with his words
And his nonexistent heart.
A harbinger of pain and suffering.
His brilliant mind disguised his dark insides.
You have cheated me once.
And now you’ve come back
To cheat on me again.
Now you’ve come back
To revive the heartbreak
You once gave me,
As if the first time wasn’t hard enough.
But like the last time,
I will fight back.
I will take back what is rightfully mine;
Until I lose my breath;
Until the last tooth and nail fall out.
That day will come.
Eventually.
Until I no longer have to shed tears of pain,
But of joy.
Until the sun reflects
Not the red of rage,
But of love.
So yes.
Maybe your body can be buried.
Maybe you can wear the fanciest,
Whitest,
Purest burial clothes.
Maybe you can be placed in the grandest,
Most intricate coffin.
Maybe you can be given the
Applause of 21 guns.
But you cannot bury
The anguish of the thousand mothers
Who lost their children to a grim future
They didn’t want to be part of.
You cannot bury the cries
Of pain and torture
From the ones who only fought
For what they believed they deserved–they did
Not deserve you.
You cannot bury the reek of your evil;
Its scent has only gotten stronger.
You have cheated me
Again and again.
I will keep fighting
Again and again.
So yes.
Maybe you can be buried.
But I know what you did,
And I know what I should do.
(Alexandria M. Mordeno, 17, is a 2nd year Political Science student at Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology. She wrote this piece on November 19).
