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The poem takes place during the pandemic with a poor Filipino family suffering from hunger and oppression that the mid-2021 pandemic is making them face.

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A lot of families in poverty would be in the same dilemma as being mentioned in the poem. The pandemic has caused major changes throughout the globe, notably the changes in the economic system. At this point, people were losing their jobs, businesses, and even money with the lack of income. However, for those that live in poverty, their hardships turned much worse with the lack of food, income, and other important essentials they needed to survive, especially when most of these are very limited for them. The reason for these events is the faulty system and procedures that the country’s government has done in trying to “help” the people get through the crisis. Although many Filipinos were able to endure the new normal during the pandemic, it wasn’t the same for the families that live in poverty.

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Based on the poem, the persona seems to be the mother, father, or guardian of Gina’s family. The persona was described as the provider of the family who tries desperately to figure out a solution to their problem of running out of food.

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The poem gives the reader a mood of sadness with the amount of suffering that Gina’s family was facing.

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“Guns and armor” = power or abuse

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This also goes for the injustices they receive due to the small amount of money they earn. Nowadays, people with money are considered  “powerful” in the Philippines, and most of this “power” is used irresponsibly with only their minds being filled with greed and selfishness.

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Bulos, N., King, L., & Chu, H. (2022, March 7). Civilian suffering intensifies as new Russian-Ukrainian talks fail to yield breakthrough. Yahoo! News. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://news.yahoo.com/russia-offers-limited-cease-fire-105730210.html

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The tone given out by the persona seemed to be in distress. Mentally sick with the effects of what quarantine has done to their household.

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All in all, the poem was really saddening for me. The fact that many Filipino families lived in poverty, the effects of the past pandemic just turned their ways of living into a situation of trying to survive.

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Although the issues of the pandemic have now been taken care of (for the most part of the world), one thing relevant about the poem is the current issues of the war between Russia and Ukraine. The war resulted  many innocent civilians of Ukraine to a state of suffering due to running low on food, water, or even power in some cities as they try to get through the ongoing war.

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Calligram: “to stretch          our patience         our faith…” - visually, this line shows the visual exaggeration and a thematically related image of what the persona is stating about the line, “stretching their patience, faith, body, and limits.”

Personification: “desperately wait for this dizzying tide of hunger                     to go away?”

Irony: “What’s so right in being this poor?” - the point of view for these words speaks for itself.