Commemorating Super Typhoon Yolanda | The Other Side of Mae

It will be one year tomorrow when super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) hit the Philippines. It was a very tragic catastrophe to our country but this just again proved that Filipinos can withstand hardships of any kind. Through this, the Filipino bayanihan spirit had prevailed and reigned. All people, young and old acted voluntarily to aid the typhoon survivors. Various projects were formed by different organizations and institutions. Among the many are Junior Chamber International Philippines (JCIP) ‘s Oplan Damayan, La Salle University-Ozamiz’ Halad: A Concert for a Cause, and Ozamiz’ small group of young professionals and businessmen’s #TabangGikanSaMindanao. With this, even from a little child’s one peso, a tricycle driver’s one kilo of rice, to a big businessman’s thousands of pesos, all donations were directly given to those who were greatly affected by the typhoon. There was no help big or small. Every single help were counted to ebb away the pain and infliction Yolanda brought to our country. Read the poem below written by a Yolanda survivor that describes how the super typhoon came to claim lives.

The Haiyan Dead

by Merlie Alunan

Do not sleep.

They walk our streets

climb stairs of roofless houses

latchless windows blown-off doors

they are looking for the bed by the window

cocks crowing at dawn lizards in the eaves

they are looking for the men

who loved them at night the women

who made them crawl like puppies

to their breasts babes they held in arms

the boy who climbed trees the Haiyan dead

are looking in the rubble for the child

they once were the youth they once were

the bride with flowers in her hair

red-lipped perfumed women

white-haired father gap-toothed crone

selling peanuts by the church door

the drunk by a street lamp waiting

for his house to come by the girl dreaming

under the moon the Haiyan dead are

looking for the moon washed out

in a tumult of water that melted their bodies

they are looking for their bodies that once

moved to the dance to play

to the rhythms of love moved

in the simple ways–before wind

lifted sea and smashed it on the land–

of breath talk words shaping

in their throats lips tongues

the Haiyan dead are looking

for a song they used to love a poem

a prayer they had raised that sea had

swallowed before it could be said

the Haiyan dead are looking for

the eyes of God suddenly blinded

in the sudden murk white wind seething

water salt sand black silt–and that is why

the Haiyan dead will walk among us
endlessly sleepless–

Indeed, Yolanda came like a theft in the night. It was the Unwanted Visitor. Through prayer and intercession, we can ask God to ease the pain and trauma of the Yolanda survivors. A year or two or another year. They still need us. We might’ve given them their physical needs but they still have their emotional needs which must be given attention. Since we cannot be there for them physically, at least we still have them in our prayers.

For more poems of Merlie Alunan, follow her on Facebook here!

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