poetry

Damn the Dictatorship
by Mila D. Aguilar

Damn the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship.
My people starve
While Imelda lives it up with Christina Ford.
Thirty days after San Juanico
Usurped sweat of the Filipino people,
Rice queues longer than any vaunted
"Seventh longest bridge in the world."

Damn the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship.
My people starve
And all the land's riches off to America and Japan.
Ferdinand kisses the corns of the new U.S. ambassador
While coconuts vanish from the stands,
Lapped up by a cabal of compradors
Who careen in olive oil while soap prices soar.

Damn the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship.
My people starve
The rice queues lengthen
The prices soar.
While Ferdinand schemes to prolong his reign
At least seven years more,
Seven miserable years of civil war.

Damn the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship.
Damn it with a million armalites
To utter destruction.

August 6, 1973

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