Maria Lorena, Maria Lorena

By

Ilving Tabios-Zamora

Last night I dreamt of you like I was there

when they riddled your soft body with bullets

I saw your blood gush like a wild river

I noticed too how high you lifted your left arm and clenched your fist

as you made your last cry:

Sugod mga kapatid, sugod

Makibaka, huwag matakot!

Your eyes gleamed before you breathed your last as the crimson sun

emerged to your east

Even in death there was your quaint smile

Your funny button nose was more like a sweet, sweet red rosebud

Beneath your thick glasses was a gaze

that pierces the heart and envelopes the soul

The idiots in snakesuits were laughing  when you closed your tired eyes

not realizing that virgins with red headbands when they die

they clone themselves with

virgins, more virgins, virginer virgins

-- tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold --

with redder headbands to haunt and hunt

-- idiots in snakesuits and the big snakes in dirty-white suits --

marching, singing:

Halina at ating  usigin

Bayan nating sinisi-il

Buhay, dugo ay puhunanin

Tanikala ay lagutin..!

Arise, Lorena, arise! Lorenas of the world, arise! Long live the patriotic revolutionary struggle for national freedom and democracy!