Online Journal 2: Analysis of Carlos Piocos’ Poem

Carlos Piocos III’s Mga Karaniwang Lungkot paints the picture of a war-stricken country and tells the story of a person away from someone they love. The author writes this poem like a letter, someone’s last words as indicated in the first line of the poem:

“Marahil ito na ang aking huling liham.”

The persona enumerates what they call “aking mga pangkaraniwang lungkot” as bitter childhood, grief from the death of someone dear, hunger, forgotten faith, unresolved love, and dreams that never got the chance to take flight. These sorrows took their form in the second stanza of the poem as

“lukot-lukot na ulap, isang itim na balahibo ng uwak, isang pinggang may pingas sa labi, larawan ng matandang simbahan, tatlong itinuping bulaklak, at isang pares ng natuyong pakpak ng paruparo.”

As natural as these may seem, the rest of the letter talks about hardships that a lot of us may not understand, things a lot of us have never experienced.

The persona goes on and starts painting the picture of the environment they are currently in.

“sa kalaliman ng gabi, gabi-gabi, ay dinadalaw ako ng matinding sikat ng liwanag”

What comes to mind is an otherwise peaceful night disturbed by bright flashes of light and blasts from bombs going out in the distance. While the angel the persona recalls is the greedy, violent, and lustful enemy that perhaps came as a charming deceiver hiding their true intentions — to rob a country of its identity and wreak havoc. This thought is further amplified as I read the 6th stanza. The persona expresses,

Nais kong banggitin na ang aking mga kasama’y naglaho nang lahat, nilamon ng hamog at usok. Na binubura ng takot,
gutom at tutok ng baril ang buong lungsod.
Na naulol ang historyador sa pagbibilang ng mga lumulutang na katawan. Na nagnanaknak na langib ang siyudad sa katanghaliang-tapat.
Na umaalingasaw ang lamang-loob ng sementeryo kapag bilog ang buwan. Na kailangan kong maligo bago matulog upang maalis ang libag, langis
at lumot ng maghapo’t magdamag sa aking balat.

It is indeed a war that has taken the lives of many, too many to even count. It is a war that leaves a permanent scar on each person and in the very place it happened.

Going back to the 5th stanza, the persona somewhat describes themself and takes the form of a person, perhaps a soldier or a commoner through the words

“aking antok, pawis, panis na laway, tsinelas at saplot, maging ang aking alaala
at bungang-tulog”

At the same time, they say that the angel they mentioned has drained them of all these and that everything this angel touches, it takes and translates it into a language no one but crickets and spiders understand. It tickles my mind that this sounds eerily similar to what our colonizers have done — drain our country of its wealth, culture, innocence, and identity and proceeded to write down what they did in history as an act of saving us in a language only the perpetrators accept and understand.

Echoing what the persona said in the first part of the poem, maybe that is how “scholars” have written our history, like a love letter, ignoring all the bad effects of the war and focusing on the good, the beautiful. Like what the persona said, they all write history self-centerdly, always in the perspective of the colonizer, the “savior” citing all the good things they brought about, all the good things that we make use of now — “ang pangungumusta at pag-uusisa sa kasalukuyang kalagayan”. They all do this “bago maghalungkat ng nawaglit na kasulatang nadaganan sa ilalim ng punda ng kama, o di kaya’y tantiyahin
sa panginurin ang mga posibilidad ng mga nagbabagang balita.” — before the sins of the past are revealed, before the consequences in the present are talked about.

The poem nears its end as the persona laments that they lay awake at night worrying about something they have forgotten — a clear effect of what a war can do to someone: trauma. They lay awake at night with their anxieties. They worry and worry but never truly knowing what they worry about. Perhaps it has been erased by all the horrors the persona has encountered. Perhaps it has been buried deep down in their mind to forget but it keeps haunting them one way or another.

In the end, the persona says their goodbyes, ending it just like a letter. But before the formalities of ending a letter,

“Nawa’y naramdaman mo ang nakapapasong halik na nagtikom sa sobreng ito”

By saying this, I think they mean the persona hopes that the recipient feels what they feel/felt. I think in writing the letter they would be able to impart the reality of war to others who haven’t experienced it.

The last line pushes me at the edge of my seat as it sounds like the persona knows they are nearing their death by saying they want to be remembered before they end up just as a name. This line circles back to the first line of the poem and concludes that this is the persona’s last farewell.

With Piocos’ Mga Pangkaraniwang Lungkot he leaves us with the reality of war and how it affects those who experienced it firsthand. From how I understand it, it is a call to not be as self-centered as the historians the persona mentioned and not let your personal problems get in the way of telling other people’s truths. It might be a reminder not to leave the names of those who suffer under their perpetrators as just that — names. He tells us to remember the pains and sufferings of people and take action for change to happen. Don’t leave history as a mere story because it will come back to haunt us in unsuspecting ways.