For Kemberly Poem by RIC BASTASA

Her body, already rotting, was found dumped, along with seven other guerrillas, deep in the forest of Concepcion, days after the Dec.15 encounter. (Inquirer, April 8,2010)

at first they were surprised about the changes.
there were no more cocktails
parties are shunned
and you stopped reaping honors
for yourself in the state university

in a wink of an eye you were gone.
where?

you assumed new names.
you've been living with the poor peasants
in nameless places.
you are Adriane, Ms. Nurse,
or God knows who

they know later through the papers.
i am shocked too about your untimely death
your rotten body
beside the new people's army guerrillas
deep in the forest of the mountain in Bukidnon

beauty and brain and idealism all
gone.

at the end of all these
sufferings
on the temple of giving all that you have

what they give you is a poem
the one that does not make any dead man rise
the one that never heals
the sufferings of those
who love you more than them