Sketches 14

The young boy was pale, He walked slowly in the alley No. 41.His skeleton hand hold a rusted tin can. He was in business,for him it was. On his innocent face, In a modern world,who really forgotten Kids like him was also human too.His eyes Pasted on a piece of bread on the dirty pavement. On his side was tall buildings,on the other was a busy EDSA. A dove whose feather blacken by the third world metropolis, Peeped down from the lamp post, Measuring the distance of the bread on the ground Look at the child,inclining its head side ward, Then,their eyes meet,resting on each other stare Like eternity, And it flew toward the blinding sun. The boy saw a man approached, Polished shoes landed on his lunch The gold Rolex,tailored clothes,big ring, A heavy necklace hung loosely on beefy neck. Surprised on a sudden hand that raised on his way, "Move out!" bellowed angrily,then scurried quickly on a green traffic light. "Fool..."the boy sighed. Business is business,he thought,as he reached out the crushed bread Uttered a little prayer,ate it religiously with tears on his eyes. Every bite he remembered his little brother he left this morning on their cartoon box house At Smokey Mountain outside Manila,its smoke ascend forever Till the end of time,because of the corrupt lordship in kings palace His little brother burned at stake alive waiting for his pancit. His father was an inmate at Bilibid prison selda katorse (14) His mother was a girl in the street. Then an old woman came out at the Binondo Church. Walked briskly as the wind swept the dusk on summer days. Stopped,a discolored dirt hand spread for an alms. Irritated,she rummaged her purse,and gently place the one peso on the boys hand,made sure to slow her movement,maybe the rest Were looking at her, she raised her brow and smile "Of course.", she said sweetly Father hope will see this act she thought that Might mention her name in homily,Mrs. Cerbo was kind to the poor. He spit the coin and swipe it on his dirty torn shirt And say..."God Blessed Maddame." Then he ran at the little Sari-sari store Brought a piece of bread,break it into halves He hid his share on his pocket Then tossed the half on the side walk When the boy had gone, blue wing landed Ate with pride and thinking, "stupid boy..stupid boy..".