Have You Hoped? (Poem)

Have You Hoped?

Levy Abad, February 7, 2016

Have you seen the writing on the wall

Courtesy of bulatlat.com

Courtesy of YouTube.com

or the candle light in the midst of the barricade at night?

Have you visited the shanties

or walked in the paths in the country?

Have you seen the pain and suffering in the eyes of our people ?

Have you leapt into uncertainty

just trusting on the love of  the land that nurtured you?

Have you held the banner in the picketlines

or in the countless marches for justice?

Have you stared in the eyes of your brothers and soldiers 

who will one day be ordered to shoot you?

Have you been followed by the minions of greed while awake?

Have they haunted you in your dreams?

Have you seen them watching you from a distance?

Have they threatened you to stop caring for the motherland

or told you  of the fate that befell those who served ?

Have you seen Judas face to face

and told him that he has to do what he has to do? 

Have you seen the torture chamber being prepared ?

Have you seen the bullets flying towards you?

Have you closed your eyes and see your wife and children weeping over your grave

or friends and comrades tears fall with courage

to take your place in the struggle for justice?

Did your mother cry every night beseeching God to protect you from the Devil and his ilks?

The same mother who taught you to love and  care  for our people.

Have you seen what our martyrs have seen

or walked in the paths that the revolutionaries paved?

Have you seen compassion, justice, peace?

Have you hoped?