Burnaby, BC, 20 September 2024 – (Written for the Martial Law martyrs of the Philippines.)
Kumusta Ka, Tinubuang Bayan? By Bella Balisi-Bevilacqua In the stillness of the night, we roll, A tale of shrieking sorrow, hopes, and screams. For in your heart, dear land, we fall, To echo Desaparecidos that haunt our dreams. From a tyrant's grip, where shadows withdrew, Brave souls arose, courage with new heights, Yet darkness crept and fiercely blew, Turning their flames to silent nights. They held for truth, for justice's claim, But silence tumbled, a heavy shroud, With every defeat, a haunting name, A clustered prayer beneath the crowd. As mothers search with weary souls, For sons and daughters lost to fate, A thousand sighs for all that crawls, The weight of grief, such slated grate. In dark alleys were justice charades, Voices, echoes, laughter, and bawling ring, For every heart of hearts that love invades, A vow forged never to cling. Extrajudicial, the cold declares, As life is taken without a trace, Yet, in each heart, breathing is aflare, For truth to rise and take its place. Through years of pain, we stand as one, In the name of the brave, we say no to flight, For all the suns and moons that set and shun, A chance for dawn to command the light. Oh, Tinubuang Bayan, how you ache, With visions once vivid now masked in gray, But in hidden tears, we’ll not forsake, The spirit of the bold who stay. For in our hearts, their voices surge, A masterpiece of hope and grace, We mount, we remain, we never quell, Until we unearth a dwelling place. So, kumusta ka, dear land, beloved? With each rip, a seed of change, For love and fairness, we have been slapped, Oh, to weave a future, able and strange!
(MBB)
