TULA (POETRY)
Negros
By Tomasito T. Talledo
Posted by Bulatlat
I.
All are 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.
II.
To the rhythm of the fusillade
dance
dance nimbly my son.
Hear our partisan friends celebrating
victory
Our tactical raids drove fascists retreating.
Time when we harvested their rifles in
Isabela, Sipalay, La Carlota.
In the slopes of Kanlaon outflanked them
with the volcano smoke covering us
like the sacadas hiding their warriors
in safety from pursuing enemies.
We keep the perfect ambush there's no escape.
Celebrate cheerily my son
fascists may pour bullets over our land
victory still.
We rise with the trembling dawn!
III.
Thousands of us soured the sugar lords
Thousands of us unlocked their penitentiaries
Thousands of us drove their thugs away.
They may pour their blackest ire
This cannot stop our surest march.
Already we are the avenging volcano.
They who suck the sacadas' sweat
Cannot eat us all alive
Cannot grind us in machines
Cannot scrap us like bagasse.
Our howls are louder now
Our sinews even stronger.
One day
we dance sweet la jota in their graves.
Thousands of us will sing the jubilee
Thousands of us will wipe the widows' tears
Thousands of us will heal the wounds of Negros.
Posted by Bulatlat
(Sacadas are
seasonal farm workers hired to work from one plantation to another. Living
in bunkhouses, their pay is lower than most farm workers.)
Tomasito T.
Talledo is a Social Science faculty member of U.P. in the Visayas and also
a member of CONTEND-UP.
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