the writing on the wall

my flag is smeared with blood,
the blood of the blue-blooded
and the blood of the dead.
people watch it fly
through a blue-sky breeze,
above the city, high
and happy like the prince.
but the passing swallows
and the ragged sparrows
know it sighs and cries
in grief kept clandestine
from the well-fed
and the complacent.

alive we are all blue-blooded,
for red harbingers death.
my flag is smeared with the blood
of the living and the honorable dead.
in retrospect i am grateful
for the blue and crimson stains.
i wouldn’t want it all yellow,
its courage never waned.
and an immaculate white would mean
all the bleeding happened in vain.

(actually, i was supposed to write an essay about the two logos above that i made for the "proudly pinoy" logo design contest, but hey, this is my poetry page, it’s sacrilegious. i still have to come up with another blog site for my essays. so i wrote this bloody poem. if you like those two logos, please feel free to email your positive comments to  proudlypinoy@yahoo.com.ph.  just state my contest nickname: ivan roarke. you can also vote for the other entries. there are a lot of really good ones at the contest website: http://www.proudlypinoy.org/.  there are judges for this contest, but they also rely on public opinion. we would appreciate it if you exercise your right to vote. thanks everyone.)