This morning Little Comrade
gave me a flower’s bud
I look at it now
remembering you, Felix,
dear friend and comrade
and all the brave sons and daughters
of our suffering land
whose death
makes our blades sharper
gives our bullets
surer aim.
How like this pure white bud
are our martyrs
fiercely fragrant with love
for our country and people!
With what radiance they should still have unfolded!
But sadness should not be
their monument.
Whipped and lashed desperately
by bombed-raised storms
has not our Asian land
continued to bloom?
Look how bravely our ranks
bloom into each gap.
With the same intense purity and fragrance
we are learning to overcome.
-Ma. Lorena Barros
Summer of 1973
Published in Ulos