In the slums of Tondo, people dwell <br />in shacks of cardboard, bits of bamboo, <br />corrugated metal, and a few cement blocks. <br /> <br />They come from all the provinces-- <br />a farmer’s son from Cagayan, <br />a coal miner from Bulacan, <br /> <br />a field hand from the banana plantations <br />of Davao. They come to Manila <br />for work, for better pay. <br /> <br />The highest incidence of men <br />running amok is in Tondo, <br />or at least, that’s what the local tabloids <br /> <br />have for headlines every week. Amok in Tondo <br />kills seven! Police shoot him to death! <br />During the Filipino-American War <br /> <br />from 1900 to 1902, the Colt .45 pistol <br />was refined to kill crazed <br />Moro fighters who ran amok <br /> <br />and would not stop attacking <br />with rabid animal urgency <br />when shot with bullets of lesser caliber. <br /> <br />The superstitious old women in Tondo say <br />that no rice, no shoes, and no work <br />breed beetles and violence. <br /> <br />They say that small black beetles <br />can lay eggs in a man’s ear, <br />and this is what makes a man run.<br /><br />Nick Carbo<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/running-amok/
