By RON DE VERA
Exactly twenty-six years ago
I spent the day within the four walls
of our home, waiting for you
to take me out on a father’s day date.
But you never came home.
I don’t like speaking on your behalf.
I don’t like claiming that you
willingly sacrificed your life
for the greater good of society.
I like to think that you just
wanted to get home to your son
because it was father’s day
and you made him a promise.
But you never came home.
I’m 35, yet when I remember that day
I still become that tearful 9 year old boy
waiting for his father
to make good on his promise.
But you never came home.
To never give up the search for truth;
to never give up the struggle for justice;
to never get tired of fighting for liberation;
to never stop demanding accountability
from your abductors;
to find you; this is my promise.
I have left the four walls
of fearing, of not caring,
because you never came home.
Ron’s father, activist Manuel Manaog, was abducted by state security forces in 1990, and still missing to this day.
