(after the painting, Pagmulat, by Marcel Antonio)

Garbage, the heap of refuse,

The surplus of our discards,

The mountain of our wants,

Disowned and abandoned,

Is his bounty.     

                      From there he 

Salvages his longing, extracts

The salve of his small hungers

Festering like wounds                   

On his slight, stunted body.

What colors of smoldering

And miasma the artist

Evokes from the scene, his

Pigments emulate, in the mucilage

Of decay, the disintegration

Of hope: