In Support of Free Education

 I support

Free tuition policies

Not just for the ones

Who get the highest grades

Not just for the ones

Who live closest to the imperial core

Not just for the ones

Who have generational access to power

Also, too, for the person

Who takes

Beautiful photographs

For the one who craft

Moving stories

For the one who wants

To take a brush to canvas

Children of the agtatalon

Farmers

For the one

Who wants to wrestle and argue

And think

Not to go overseas

To care for a stranger's child

But to stay home

And build a fair

And equitable

And thriving community

Why do we take a valuable

Resource such as money

From families

In exchange for education

That is meant for all?

A human right, after all

The system gatekeeps

Keeping me entangled

In its snares

With no access to higher education

That could teach me

Critical thinking skills

That's needed

To disentangle myself free

From this system

Wily, this function

Of a jealous, insecure framework

Denying my student loan application

Forcing me

To pay out-of-pocket

Because the system doesn't recognize

Monthly family remittances

As eligible expenses

And what if our pockets are empty?

But we know we're smart

And can contribute

And have something to say

And we're willing to work for bayanihan*

With nimble arms, legs, body

And mind

Capable of lifting

My neighbours bahay kubo

"Frustrated congressman"

As my uncles would

Joke amongst ourselves

A note of sadness, wondering:

What could've been?

With hard-fought, cultivated curiosity, asking:

What is possible, not for tomorrow

But, urgently,

Now?