Poem by Francis Cagampang*

Sur II

Should I ever shed tears?
Should there be pain
flashed across my sunburned face?--
it would be
with honor and faith for courage.
Your fall, comrade
is a passionate transition
from love embroidered
in silk
to an elegy
authored and lived
through blood and sweat
to whom you offered
your uncalloused hands spent
through the language of wilderness.

across valleys and plains
flow the blood of thieves,
traitors of class, baptisms of
Revolution, the fulfillment of dreams
to another height
of a firmer ground.

Every explosion of fury--
rifles and grenades become
the poetry of the masses.
Ah, vengeance be quenched!

And I'll stop by the rivers and seas
to feast
on your great victories.

So should I ever shed tears?
it would be of pride,
Comrade.

* Francis was a fourth year student of the College of Arts and Sciences, UPV, Miag-ao, Iloilo when he was drawn in Antique circa 1992. A literature student, he was born in Kalibo, Aklan. This is the only poem I know written by him. He used the pen name: Red East.

Source: Ang Mangingisda. Published by the the students of the College of fisheries, UPV, Miag-ao, Iloilo, September 1992.