Eve of Victory
How like this
pure white bud are our martyrs
fiercely fragrant
with love for our country and people!
-- Lorena Barros,
“Sampaguita”
By
Tomasito T. Talledo*
Last night the celebrants burned some
parts of the
sky
And from a distance we smell the air of a
thousand
explosions
We’re in the eve of victory. The hour of
our takeover
is near.
We already lost fear of betrayals. We
awake from a bad
dream
We who knew most honest death must now
heal our
wounded woes.
Our bold men and women erected firm
defenses as they
patiently wait
To hear the sweetest password in the dark
ready to
gird up
Now like an excited groom all set to take
his bride
victory is in the heart.
We open the city gates for the army of
liberation:
they’re here
To inflame loaded imagination. We are in
the feast of
expectations
The hour of our takeover is drawing near.
*Tomasito T. Talledo
is with the faculty of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas
and is a member of CONTEND-UP
