Mayamor*

By TOMASITO T. TALLEDO

You write poetry but who reads?

They who send SMS “I luv U ga…mwah.”?
They who sit at coffee shops blubbering inanities?
They who sex at the age of fourteen?

They’re Plato’s ilks who’ll banish poetry in our people’s republic.

You vividly paint the revolution but who stops to see?

The eyeless agents wobbling in graveyard shifts?
The dyslexiacs lost in labyrinth of wikepedia?
The somnambulists in flat cyberscreen?

They’re shards of broken mirror who can’t reflect the whole.

Still, you write and paint and sing of the coming wise-dom
Of enchanted forests, waterfalls and nourishing rain
Of communal dagsaw, drums and armalites
Of Tumandok people’s protracted war.

While we bury our eyes, guts and hearts at comfort zones of indifference.

Still, you write and paint and sing of communism
Of food, learning and spirited actions
Of binanog dances, healing and cultivation
that will surface in headwaters of Panay.

*Mayamor is a revolutionary poet based in the mountains of Central Panay who popularizes the aspirations and experiences of Red fighters and the toiling masses of the island through his prose, poetry and other artistic works.

Dagsaw – communal fishing practiced by the indigenous people of Panay
Tumandok – Indigenous people of central Panay
Binanog – indigenous dance imitating the courtship dance of hawks