Online Journal 4: Analysis of Acosta’s ‘Walang Kalabaw sa Cubao’ and Santos’ ‘The Gods We Worship Live Next Door’
Acosta’s poem talks about Cubao and its wonders. It is a free-verse poem that lists down different landmarks that can be found in the said place, as well as activities that can be done. The persona is omniscient, and from the details given all around the poem, the persona could be talking about a teenager roaming around the suburbs of Cubao and living the best life he or she could have for now. The persona also somewhat gives a poverty-stricken environment. The mentioning of baby-blue horses and a hunchbacked Tyrannosaurus Rex gave off the impression that the persona was still young, but when the eighth line from the fourth stanza was mentioned, it was safe to assume the persona was describing or talking about a teenager.
The first stanza of Acosta’s poem could be perceived as the things or activities the persona wanted to experience and try. It ended by mentioning Tamaraw FX as if taking the readers on a ride through Cubao highlighting different landmarks and popular spots. The latter part of the second stanza used church symbols like sacristans and wafer or “ostiya” in describing jeepney barkers doing their jobs. The last stanza used time concepts in listing the routines or activities that may be done by the persona.
As what the title said, “walang kalabaw sa Cubao”. Carabaos are known to be hard working mammals and are a great help to farmers in the Philippines. Flies , on the other hand, are somewhat pests or nuisance to us, people, eating scraps or even eating with us during dinner. They could also be little curious insects just trying to survive in the world. From what the last stanza said, “ang Cubao Mismo ang kalabaw at sila ang nakadapong langaw”, we can say that Cubao is not known because of the people or buildings, it is known for helping people learn how to live. The carabao could symbolize drive, a push, and the flies could symbolize curious beings. These people would want to learn or progress in life, so they go to a place they think that would help them, which in this poem would be Cubao. As these people become successful or grow, they would forget about the hardships they went to and see their successes like they did everything on their own. Cubao nurtured these people, not the other way around.
In Santos’ poem, the persona was talking about these god-like beings and their lavish lives- from buying expensive perfumes to the golden caskets, which would then be their final resting place. “They’re brown and how easily they catch cold sneezing,” this line would emanate that these god-like beings are not really gods nor god-like at all and are merely human beings. Even though the people know these god-like beings are also like them, they still fear them. And as a consequence of being human or mortal, they would still die, but they already have legacies, children or apprentices, that would continue their reign as these god-like beings dominating everyone else.
These gods mentioned could symbolize people with power. As it was mentioned ,these beings are humans as well, but normal people still fear them. They have roads named after them and heirs to their thrones of power use their names to gain more power to rule over normal people.
The central metaphor for both poems revolves around the things or places we see in a city or an urban area. In the first poem, it mentioned a lot of things that could be found in Cubao: Ali-Mall, MRT-2, Big Dome and Automatic Center. The second poem mentioned golden shops above rotundas and roads titled with the names of these mortal gods. The use of the central metaphor described and gave the impression of poverty and corruption. Using this metaphor to describe the poverty and corruption in a city setting would seem ironic since cities are seen as progressive areas, which are less subjected to corruption and poverty.
Metaphors are used mostly in both poems. For example, sacristans were used to describe barkers, as well as the whole stanza describing the work process of a barker. It would also be seen on how powerful people were described as gods. Personification was used on the lines, “na ang langibang pusod ay kakabit pa rin ng estero”, since estuaries do not really have uteruses. Synecdoche was used on the lines,”at ngayon, kagat-kagat nila ang labi ng alas-dos”, as it described not forgetting the joys of living that day. Saying people with power as gods could also be a form of exaggeration since people are very vulnerable beings. The first poem did not really have any rhyme schemes besides the last stanza. The second poem had an a-b-b-a-c-d-d-c for the first stanza, and a-b-b-a-c-c for the last stanza.
These poems want us to see the poverty and corruption or simply the oppression that people experience. The poems wanted to give a glimpse of the lives of the oppressed and make us experience what they do just to survive living from day to day. In our society, corruption and poverty are very evident. These start from the ones on the very top and affect everyone on the bottom. We should be open with voicing out our thoughts and opinions about these forms of oppression so we could improve not just our society, but the lives directly affected by them. Since these people do not have voices loud enough to be heard, people should speak up even though they may not be greatly affected. You cannot always get back up by yourself, sometimes help is needed.