'"We drink to forget we're thirsty, write to forget we can't speak, and carry madness like a lucky coin in our pocket. They'll call you broken, but what's whole ever felt half as real?" - Charles B. & Spike M. DON'T TRY, I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL W. J. Manares Gritty lines from the gutter meet daft rhymes in tutus. These poems pour beer on broken hearts, tell jokes to empty rooms, and mix bare-knuckle truth with madcap soul. Life's a mess, so we might as well laugh while we bleed. *** W. J. Manares is a one-of-a-kind writer from Aklan, Philippines, authored more than 69 books and counting, a lesser-known worldbuilder and storyteller, and labelled as "the sardonic yet whimsical author of the Philippines" since 1999.