YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR

AFTERLIFE
MARIO ERIC GUMALINDA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
MARIO ERIC GAMALINDA
Age: 54
Birthday: Oct. 14, 1956
Birthplace: Manila
School: UST and UP
Occupation: Poet, fictionist, essayist
Currently lives in: New York City, USA
Currently works at: Center for Investigative
Journalism
Eric Gamalinda is a local fellow for poetry of the
UP ICW in 1983. He went to Great Britain to
represent the Philippines in the Cambridge
International Writers Conference in 1990. In 1991,
he attended the Hawthornden International Writers
Retreat in Scotland. Gamalinda got a Rockefeller
Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy. He also
participated in the Japan International Cooperation
Agencys Programme for the 21st century.
Other Works & Achievements
Fire Poem/Rain Poem (1976)
Lyrics From A Dead Language (1991)
Zero Gravity (1999) Asian American Literary
Award
Peripheral Vision (1992)
Planet Waves (1989) National Book Award
Confessions of a Volcano (1990)
The Empire of Memory (1992)
My Sad Republic (1998) Centennial Literary
Prize
Anatomy of a Passionate Derangement (One-act
play, 1980) -1st prize, Gawad Palanca Award
Ara Vos Prec (1985) Gawad Palanca Award
Patria Y Muerte (1988) Gawad Palanca Award
Mourning and Weeping in this Valley of Tears
(1988) Gawad Palanca Award
The Unbreakable Lightness of EDSA (1990)
Gawad Palanca Award
Muerte del Anghel (1992) Free Press Literary
Awards

ABOUT THE STORY:

Selection

"You Can Choose Your Afterlife," is found in

Gamalindas book, Zero Gravity. The poem is based
on the beliefs of the Tboli, an old indigenous
people living in South Cotabato in Southern
Mindanao.
The Tboli afterlife has several destinations. The
souls of murder victims and warriors slain in battle
will be celebrated in a bloodthirsty kingdom. To die
by the sword entails the people you left behind to
mourn for your tragic death. According to the Tboli
beliefs, victims of drowning become citizens of the
sea. They will be under the rule of Fon Muhin, a
god they...

POEM:
According to the strange customs
of the T'boli
who believe we are not judged
by good or evil
but by the kind of death
we meet: to die by the sword
is to enter the kingdom
where everything
even the sound of water
is red They welcome you there
with the tintinnabulation
of copper bells
and the lamentation
of bamboo violins
and all night long
a wounded sun hovers
over your place of business
And those who drown
return to the navel of the sea
(that's what they call it)
where they become subjects
of Fon Muhin, god
of all creatures
who breathe water And those
who die of sickness
go to Mogul
where they receive everything

they've always desired

but are not free of suffering
And those who kill themselves

We, humans, have the desire to know why. Why did

it happen? Why did they do it? We'll never know.
But that's not the point of this poem.

go to a place exactly like earth

but where everything sways
even in sleep

This is a poem about empowerment. In death, in

which most of us imagine that we have no choice,
Gamalinda is positing that maybe, in some ways,
we
do
have
a
choice.

Arne you didn't tell us

why you wanted
to go
we can only imagine you
in a world where
you can't keep a cup
of coffee still
and people keep changing
the rules for soccer
because the ball
keeps rolling away
You won't miss us
everything moves in the same
direction You were always
one step ahead

The answer to the riddle of Arne's suicide is hidden

in these stanzas, but the answer is something that
pertains to much more than suicide, or death. This
isn't a poem about death. This is a poem about
choice. If you have can choose your afterlife, then
your possibilities in life are endless.
You can choose anything.

ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION:

Tboli beliefs about death saying that

we are not judged by good or evil but by the
kind
of
death
we
meet.

If you die by sword, your soul will be

celebrated (welcome you there with the
tintinnabulation of copper bells) in a
bloodthirsty kingdom (where everything
even the sound of water is red)

To die by the sword also entails the people

you left behind to mourn for your tragic
death (lamentation of bamboo violins
and all night long a wounded sun hovers
over your place of business.)

we are not judged by good or evil but by

the kind of death we meet.

ANALYSIS/INTERPRETATION:
In this poem, the speaker addresses a friend, real or
created, who decided to take his own life.
All the analogies are about people who took their
own life. The part you highlighted is about people
who drown themselves. They sink to the bottom of
the sea (the navel (belly-button)) and they become
part of the sea life. They become the same as all the
other underwater creatures (the creatures who
breathe water).

If you die by sword, your soul will be

celebrated (welcome you there with the
tintinnabulation of copper bells) in a
bloodthirsty kingdom (where everything
even the sound of water is red)
Discussion At the end of the poem,
Gamalinda mentions that death is inevitable.

I think about this poem a lot, particularly the line in

which the speaker first addresses his friend, Arne;
"Arne, you didn't tell us/ why you wanted/ to go"
The speaker is so obviously at peace with the lack
of closure in this situation. He doesn't know why
Arne took his own life, but he's not going to spend
the rest of his life trying to figure it out. I have spent
many hours wondering about questions I'll never be
able to answer. I haven't made peace with many of
them,
but
it's
an
ongoing
quest.

But really, the Bottom Line is the title

itself,

"You can choose your afterlife." The author

wants to imply that human beings are given

so much free will, so much power. If we

could choose our afterlife