That Bloody Day

That Bloody Day

Dan Kevin Roque 

For I will ever remember,

That bloody day of November,

Chilling my bones and making me shiver,

As I read the evening paper.

For thou art none but heroes,

Argus for the Filipinos,

Thou art fighters of freedom,

Saviors of my soul, poet that I am.

Where hast thou crusade led?

Thou seeketh thine truth and yet,

A hail of bullets and thou bled,

Leading thou to thy death.

Crimson sky and scarlet soil,

Bodies beneath iron, thine souls recoil,

Succumb to the onslaught of madness,

Essaying from the Lords of Darkness.

 Is it the fate that for me awaits?

Is my passion but a ticket to the Pearly Gates?

Oh Lady Justice bring thy scale,

And thy Bible written in Braille.

Must I embark on the path that cry,

Of dirges for the dead?

Oh Odin, Lord of the Gallows,

Pour me three mugs of mead.

For nine nights I stood by the tree,

And the secrets of the world was opened to me.

For nine days I witnessed the truth,

Thineliberty and mine is that struggle’s fruit.

Blood rained that November,

That I will always remember.

But for freedom I shall fight,

Even in this perpetual half-light.

Dan Kevin Roque is an AB English Language student at Araullo University-PHINMA. He is currently the Managing Editor of Viewpoint. His poem, "That Bloody Day" is one of the three poems in his entry that received the Special Citation for Poetry in the 8th Gawad Emman Lacaba, the annual literary contest of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines-Luzon. It is a commemoration of the Maguindanao Massacre and a plea to stop impunity.