My Summer

Summer in the Philippines is:
When school year ends
And graduation is on the air
When fasting and abstinence are borne
Of the Lenten season, here we observe and pray
Some parents and children pack their multicolor bags
Off to Boracay, Bohol or Puerto Princesa's land
To Hong Kong, Japan, China, maybe USA they say
Any better places their money sure can pay.

Many summers I did all these in shorts and jeans
Hauled my young children on buses and planes
With plastic bags, water and crackers inside my pack
We stayed in crude inns or some semi luxurious bins
No matter where, I must spend my two month's break
Off to the beach, the sun and the shore
To the mountain, to the sea for asthmas cure
Not only to read and write yet climb and swim
Thank God for your summer's surviving skills

Motion sickness, fever, there were more to bear
As Emil threw up from trail to trail
How Roy messed up my brother's car
And sleepless nights we fought
With coughs and whizzing gasps
But on we throve in nature's lure
To find some cure and hopes endured
We roughed it out and survived despite the odds
For God's Spirit was there to accompany us.