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© 1978 SSJ

Author’s Note:

‘Fiasco’ is one of five poems that form the collection Silent Verses. The collection, written under the pseudonym Dias was written in the period 1977-1978, during the martial law years of the Philippines, while the author was in university trying to finish an electrical engineering degree. Later in 1978 (or early 1979?), the collection was entered into a literary writing contest in the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and became one of the three collections awarded the top prize in the poetry category.

The poems of Silent Verses (all of which will be posted in this blog in the coming days), speak of the farce that was inflicted on a country by the regime of Ferdinand Marcos (who was President of the Philippines from 1965 – 1986, ruling as a dictator under martial law from 1972  – 1981). They also lament the failings and anguish of a generation that allowed such a despot and his cronies to lord it over a country for so long, engendering a fiesta-fiasco of extreme extravagance by a few while the majority of the populace endured and/or groveled in extreme poverty.

— SSJ, 19 May 2017