WHEN DEMOCRACY COMES

WHEN DEMOCRACY COMES

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Land of ours! You’re bent on reminding

Us anew: that our Sentinels again

Will rob us clear of our well-earned

Civil rights and arrogate for themselves

All powers of government.

So what? Yes, so what?

Will democracy become so weary

As to naively recline upon coal embers

That are our Sentinels’ hearts?

Has democracy anyway flowered

Into full bloom in your soil as to assure

Your history’s place in the citadels

Of human grandeur?

Land of ours! Relay these utterances

To the vanguards of treachery:

Democracy is verily like a fruit

That has ripened in the beings

Of the workingmen in shops and farms:

A dazzling show twill manifest

As it finally blooms to maturity

And edifices of fascistic greed twill

Burn down to remain as ashes forever

A signal to all humanity of your

Patriots’ repute as victors and

You: a bastion of freedom bearers.

[Writ. 13 October 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]