The poem is about the authors negative view of the Philippine government due to past events, as well as his own experiences in the present during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author seems to dislike how the government is handling the situation. This can be seen in the latter half of the poem: “It doesn't matter who is at fault; what politician will come next or what love is left…”.

The author is the person speaking in this poem. This is because everything in the poem is told in his voice. The author can be described as losing all hope for the Philippines as a whole due to the government. This is evidenced by this line in the poem “...we are what we have always been…”. This line connotes despair and hopelessness as “being what we always have been” means that we have not made any progress.

“Consider the blind fist of a man, and his purpose, the blindest part of him. Now pillage his barangay, and make corruption the pillar of his bones so that after a week without food, rumbling will be his sole condition.” Here, the author uses visual imagery and symbolism to emphasize the hopelessness of the situation. If we take this quote in a more literal sense, we can see another side to this “blind man”, and how he is the symbol of the oppressed Filipino people. The fact that the author did not include the voice of the blind man in this poem, even when he is metaphorically speaking, “in pain” due to the corruption of his bones, means that the blind man is unable to express themselves in any way. He cannot see because he is blind, and he does not react to his physical distress by protesting or screaming. This can be related to those in poverty in the Philippines, as they do not receive sufficient help from the government, and they do not have a strong enough “voice” to force change. Another more obvious interpretation of this quotation is that the author is actually alluding to the Marcos Era, and the Martial Law Era wherein corruption was one of the biggest problems that the Philippines faced. This is even backed up by a line in the middle of the poem: “...a memory too old to discover.” This alludes to the wealth of the Philippines prior to the Marcos regime. The Philippines was one of the richest countries in Asia, and due to corruption, we can only think back to this point in time as a memory. This relates to how the economy of the Philippines has become weak due to corruption, and we struggle to manifest this memory and return to being one of the rich countries in Asia. In the latter half of the poem, we can observe another flaw in the government, how they handle the COVID-19 situation poorly, and how the decisions of politicians can indirectly affect the average Filipino: “...even the teenager who standing in line outside a drugstore. He catches my eyes, the contour of them, and nothing else. The guard doesn't let him in because he doesn't have a face shield and when he turns, he knocks over a trash can.” There is a flaw in this situation. The teenager was not let in by the security guard because he is not wearing a face shield. The fact teenager was hoping to obtain medical supplies for himself or for someone he is caring for, but because the government suddenly required people to wear face shields on top of their face masks, the teenager is unable to obtain these supplies. Consequently, “he turns, he knocks over a trash can”. Then, the author adds: “It doesn't matter who is at fault…”. This highlights the fact that the politicians are somewhat to blame for the trash can being knocked over, because the boy turned around suddenly to leave the line at the pharmacy. However, it doesn't matter because the end result is the trash can was knocked over. This relates to how the decisions and actions of the government can have adverse effects on things that are bigger than the trash can. The trash could be a symbol of those who faced indirect oppression from the government.

Society is flawed. We are still suffering the effects of corruption from the Marcos regime, and people are still being oppressed by the government to this day. In the first line of the poem, “Aimless anger is a wail, a noise scattered across the ages.” This shows that the problems that we bring up are eventually forgotten by the government. In addition, we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are also still feeling the effects of corruption from over 30 years ago during the Marcos regime, as we are unable to salvage most of the stolen money.

It took me a lot of re-reading to finally grasp the meaning of the poem. I realized that poems are a lot shorter than essays, but are usually difficult to understand. I like this poem because the issues discussed were all relevant.