Photo courtesy of National Federation of Sugar Workers.

By TOMAS TALLEDO

All eaters that feast on open graves
While the bloodsoaked canefields
Painfully murmured the killers names —
Gustilo, Cojuanco, Benedicto
Montelibano, Sola, Araneta
Creatures all of malevolence.
Night dogs, mad dogs, hungry dogs,
Dogs that eat babies.
Dusk falls heavily now in Negros
When homes are abandoned as
Terror breathes cold on sacadas’ ears.
No child could hide in safety since
All places are filled with tortured ghosts,
Howling ghosts from depths of burial pits
Ilog, Kabangkalan
Langoni, Escalante
Where the bloodsoaked canefields
Warned of bloodthirsty dogs
Gustilo, Cojuanco. Benedicto
Montelibano, Sola, Araneta.

*An excerpt from Songs of War Patriots and other poems (2011)

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