Show me your smile and then kiss me

Tell me you love me again

Come to my room and then lie in my bed

I love you, you know although sometimes

It just doesn’t show

When I’m feeling down in the dumps, I tap into my feel-good playlist, a selection of lovey-dovey, downright mushy ditties under the label, Katipunan, so named after my alma mater and all the memories it evokes.

I hear Basil warbling about hope and strength, and will to keep on, and am instantly transported to those days when anything and everything seemed possible, when we were courageous enough to face tanks and soldiers with rosaries and roses.

A walk under the moonlight, in the middle of the football field, seemed oh so cheesy now, but it’s one I took with a boy and his hundred tortured feelings. I always remember that night and his soulful soliloquy whenever the Apo goes on with Yakap Sa Dilim, but no, we never did manage an embrace. Sigh.

At Eliazo, there was one heady semester, or was it a year, when every other room had Mike Francis’ Let Me In on repeat. Of course, everybody stopped whatever it was that they were doing whenever it came to the high notes, trying their damndest to reach it.

I once tried to reach for those high notes, singing Hello Joe, Goodbye at the college fair. I think I did fairly well, but really what was I thinking?!

That was the end of my career in front of a live audience, which doesn’t mean I don’t bust my lungs out at home, to the consternation of my neighbors. Di na natuto, totoo! Still, I cling to these songs like bread to butter because time will reveal that hey, it’s always been oh so sweet, baby!