Niño Cornel wins NOVUS Case Competition’s Outstanding Poem award

Ateneo de Manila Senior High School student Niño Cornel (12-Navarro) won the Outstanding Poem Award in the NOVUS Case Competition’s “Spoken Word” category on February 18, 2023. The competition was held at De La Salle University's Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Here is the poem:   

UNDER ASH BANNERS

By Niño Cornel

Do you hear them?

We who cry your names amidst the mayhem

You created, not amended

And defended like you’re blinded

By your promises of riches

On the premise you won’t ditch us,

But you did; we are your quid

To land that bid

Towards the throne of purple silk—

Land of honey and of milk—

Where the gray and yellow glitter

Like the stars you want to master

To forget about ash you have woven to a banner

That is now about to crash and destroy every manor

From the likes of you

And us who chew

What is left under your tables

As you tell tall fables

To our kids on how to fix

The mess from all your tricks,

Whilst you preach at our faces

On how you’re all blameless

For the hellfire you created

In this hydrous grave we’re all fated

 For we gave you sticks around an ax

To do your openhanded acts

But you backhand us, the down-below

And treat us unlike your fellow

For in your feasts, we’re not allowed

Despite our fields, you stole; we plowed

Whilst there you burn our budding iris

And give disease to our papyrus

As you write on it with ink, that in a blink,

Could scorch the earth and make us sink

And yet your kind wants us to sing

To you the hymn “God Save the King”

Despite you tensing our collars,

Chaining us in flooding cellars,

Leaving us to rats and mice,

Treating us like we’re worse than lice,

And yet you say we must lend our hands

To you who gives us reprimands:

Yelling “it is all your fault

So fix this mess or face the Colt;”

Despite you staying in the cold,

Acting like you’re all-so bold

For giving us fill-in provisions

Of thirty-four percent saline solutions.

And now that we’re all stuck

Inside our homes praying for luck,

So that we would not get the crown,

Nor we will go down and get the frown,

And yet the storm clouds keep on coming,

And we don’t know where we’re running

‘Cause every place for safety, crammed

Since all your pockets, filled and jammed

With people’s stash that you have grabbed

And our mother’s blood of whom you’ve stabbed

In the back and in the trunk,

Causing all of us to badly flunk

The test of hubris and of morals

Until we end up with just florals

And chorales from the angels

Who’ll send us to the heavens’ parallels

For all of us to burn and get churned

By the air and seas that you have turned

To ugly beasts;

There’s no more peace

For you who made the ash a standard

For us who are about to face the great hazard.

---o0o---

NOVUS is a case contest for high school students to propose innovations for the future through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the Spoken Word, one which also provides participants an opportunity to tackle real and relevant problems, learn from experts in the field, and connect with like-minded peers.