POETRY
Eric Tinsay Valles
Salute
The Tourism Board video triggers a smile or tear:
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a boy in white polo tee, his little sister in red with a thumbs up
gush over their Pinay Mom working “non-stop” at a Kitchener hotel;
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a pharmacist’s mom, heavily made-up, says her daughter is “inspired”
to work night and day in Changi hospital despite infection risks:
the daughter’s eyes sparkle above a disposable mask;
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the sister of a marketing executive explains in Cebuano that Singapore is safe;
a Scoot steward’s mom says her son now distributes masks at some community center;
Case 167 was no less a hero when she coughed in her nurse PPE gown,
had nightmares drenched in blood in an Ng Teng Fong ward;
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she could not take care of her husband, Case 178, in another room
as she did a relative with pneumonia back home two weeks earlier;
she received gold-standard health care unlike many patients elsewhere.
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Hotel receptionists, marketing managers, airline stewards in masks
joined queues that snaked around NAIA for buses after they were laid off.
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Some heroes are unsung, others fallen; all shine before clicking the camera icon.