Paalam Ka Doris (Goodbye Comrade Doris )

Paalam Ka Doris (Goodbye Comrade Doris )

July 1,2016

A comrade, a friend, relayed  news of you passing.

I paused for a moment to remember the years
Of intense struggles for freedom and justice
In the towns along the Sierra Madre range.

As I reckon those days, I admired you in silence.
I pale compared  to your courage and strength.
You never refused any dangerous calling
When our  people's  rights need to be addressed.

I remember the marches and the perils you faced
When the fascist were shooting comrades with glee.
In the midst of terror and the silence engendered
You thundered like a prophet in the square when you speak.

Your life cut short by the illness you suffered
But you are the golden rays of sunrise for me.
And like a star I gaze at you from a far away land
As you whispered that the struggle must ever go on.

Forgive me if I cannot sing at your wake
Songs of compassion in the midst of the struggle.
Please accept this poem and my tears in your rest.
A salute to a comrade and embrace from a friend.

Doris Cuario is the Secretary General of Karapatan -Southern Tagalog,

a regional human rights organization in the south of Luzon in the Philippines.

Back when she was the Sec Gen for Karapatan - Laguna  (Province) and in the midst

of repression in the years 2000 to 2004 , she use to jokingly tease me to write

her a song if she is martyred. I remember her as a sincere  comrade in the 

struggle for human rights.  Paalam (Goodbye ) Ka. Doris .