Bonding Poem by Francisco R. Albano

[For Cita, newly wed]


Event of choice and chance
For celebration and learning
Is the manner of her union

Wherein she receives the man she loves
As power of flesh the blood of word
In landborn winds of islands

The way forest canopy covers her
Like a sevenfold benediction
And streams flow around like an oath

For self-understanding and assurance
To release her newly wed as dreams
To the struggle of shores and tide

Wherein two mountains are transformed
Into a sanctum of revolution and
Trees are candelabra of blazing orchids

And Everything is assumed by unseen
Heaven into the largeness of life
To which she and the revolution aspire

Beyond the 24th year of a civil war
Beyond waverings of proletarian leadership
At the threshold of larger unities

The manner be hours of steadfastness
To consume her stance and invention
And own surer ground of meaning

A clearer sky of purpose
A finer bonding with forces of life
That a people be served.