George Tumaob Calaor

behold the chosen children
who chose to become
marching shadows of freedom
on your skylines at night
...

when seekers of truth
are hunted like sparrows
and caged behind cold bars
of greed...
...

so fragrant as a wild flower

her scent liberates dreams
from the thought of
...

...

they knew what they did
that I cannot forgive
the crimes they intently committed
that made my nation a yard of spill of their greed!
...

The family of Three are sickly dying…
Imperialism—severely­ hypertensive and is freaking out with war!
Feudalism—weakening nerves and is chilling out of balance!
Bureaucrat Capitalism—hallucina­ting with unmanageable mental illness!
...

(English translation below)
habang ang dalampasigan ay buong suyong
nilalambing ng karagatan sa alab ng kanyang mga alon
habang ang mga tala ay kumukutitap ng buong galak
...

(Filipino translation below)

When they're at your doorstep...
for they are not strangers
...

(Filipino translation below)

When the world is violently coated with greed
and words are silenced with terror whipped by the fascist…
...

(Filipino translation below)

look how those mercenaries in camouflage
cling like leeches
...

I am not a rib of a man

I am a woman!
...

Feel my love like the stars stop to flicker
and the moon sleeps away from its glow...

feel my love like the sea calms its ocean from waving
...

...

you have planted seeds of terror
that sprouted fear in the island
of my dreams turning the dreams
for my children the nights of nightmares
...

I befriended the fire
and gracefully danced
with its flame
and at every nocturnal
...

It is not forsaking
when sometimes…
the moon rested its glow to bloom
the stars hide their flickers behind dark clouds
...

I was reminded of a submissive General Emilio Aguinaldo...
when you anointed coal dust on my forehead.
I remembered how General Aguinaldo killed Andres Bonifacio
and jailed the wounded Bonfacio's brother, Procopio.
...

Maiden of the Night


Tearing the silence of darkness
...