Jolography Activity

 

JOLOGRAPHY

Book by: Paolo Manalo

O, how dead you child are, whose spoiled Sportedness is being fashion showed 

Beautifuling as we speak—in Cubao” There is that same look: Your Crossing Ibabaw,

Your Nepa Cute, Wednesdays Baclaran, “Please pass. Kindly ride on,” 

Tonight will be us tomorrowed— [our future is finished] Lovers of the Happy Meal and its H, 

Who dream of the importedness of sex as long as it’s Pirated and under a hundred, who can smell 

A Pasig Raver in a dance club. O, the toilet Won’t flush but we are moved, doing the gerby. 

In a plastic bag; we want to feel the grooves of the records, we want to hear some scratch-

In a breakaway movement, we're the shake to the motive of pockets, to the max.

The change is all in the first jeep of the morning route. Rerouting

This city and its heart attacks; one minute faster than four o'clock, and the next

Wave that stands out in the outdoor crowd hanging with a bunch of yo-yo-s-

A face with an inverted cap on, wearing all the smiles the smell of foot stuck  between the teeth

Poem Analysis

    The underline words in the poem above are called the "JOLOGRAPHY" The space is made dialogic here, with Ibabaw, Nepa Cute, Pasig Raver crossing, and Beautifuling. While "Your Crossing Ibabaw" is a poor translation of the overpass in Cubao, it also refers to a woman crossing, specifically to a woman's crossing breasts. The speaker then attempts to praise the woman for her beauty, for being "Nepa Cute." Still, this cuteness contradicts the origin of the word, Nepa-Q Mart, Cubao's reputedly filthy supermarket. When the speaker describes his night at the dance club, he uses the term "raver," coined in the 1990s to describe people who liked to dance to rave music, and ties it together with the mispronunciation of the Pasig River, alluding to the river's mispronunciation. And Beautifulling, is the word described as "beautiful but your skin color is like charcoal, it is too black." All of the words mentioned in the poem are really hard to understand. We need to dig into it, to get the right translation of words given.

"A face with an inverted cap on, wearing all the smiles the smell of foot stuck  between the teeth"

Choosing the last stanza of the poem, really hook my attention because we can not judge a person by their appearance. People are so judgemental even though they don't know the real story behind those filthy looks that they have. But, behind those looks, we can see the true meaning of happiness. 

Judging them, we're judging ourselves also, because what we produce in our mouths is the reflection of ourselves. We need to be more vigilant in our doing because god will punish those people who did not recognize the word "LOVE".