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Diurnal: Literary News & Announcements

Revised version of my poem that first appeared in the Sunday Times Magazine on September 29, 2002. Republished in 40 - Mga Tulang Alay Sa Mga Martir Na Kabataan.


to a rebel poet

(canticum for Emmanuel Lacaba)

1.

he lived a life of a people's warrior
the paper bled and burned with his uni-
versal man songs

he dreamt of halcyon days
while fighting underground
with his red-profiled comrades

the dryads and muses cried
when he died a thousand deaths
when that bullet pierced his mouth

and the last drop of his blood
stained the ground with his last poem:
"Go ahead, finish me off."

2.

the one who pulled the trigger
was our own brown brother whose name
will not be remembered

3.

he has the mark of Cain on his forehead
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A Tao (道) Sign

Le poèt de PangasinanSantiago B. Villafania, Pangasinan poet, is the author of poetry collections Pinabli tan arum ni'ran Anlong (Beloved & Other Poems), Balikas na Caboloan (Voices from Caboloan) published by the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA) under its UBOD New Authors Series (2005) and Malagilion: Sonnets tan Villanelles (2007). Villafania is one of the 11 outstanding Pangasinenses and recipient of the 1st ASNA Award (for Arts and Culture) during the first-ever Agew na Pangasinan and 430th Foundation Day of Pangasinan in 2010. He advocates for the development, preservation and the revival of Pangasinan as a literary language. He is currently an adjunct faculty member and a senior web developer at Emilio Aguinaldo College - Manila. » more