Another Luna Died for the Nation

“She believed that faith should not be a lifeless dogma. She believed that just like Jesus, one must bring faith to serving the people—without thought of oneself. And just like Jesus, to die in service of the poor and oppressed," Stand MSU-IT on Kimberley Jul Luna, Inquirer, Jan 8, 2010

Another Luna died for the nation.
She is Kimberley Jul Luna
of the land of the lumad that dreams
of freedom and peace in Bukidnon.

These things are real for this warrior.
They translate into visions
that imagine what is put on the table:
food that speaks of a land
that can feed its own people.

Fields that dream of plenty,
with stalks of grains dreaming
of children laughing their way
to the harvest season
and to the rituals of satisfaction
like a tummy not knowing
the language that grumbles
through and through
and speaks of the deprivation
that does not begin
from salvation but in the truths
of a just future. In that time
that comes, we will no longer
need warriors dying in daylights
succumbing to the terrors
of death while one is young.

She is our struggle, true,
and she leads, leads on,
and with her sacrifice,
we wish for this calm
that will come to us at last.

We say goodbye to her,
this warrior of our homeland.
In her graveyard, clear
as the morning sky,
is the beginning of the end of war.


Marikina, Metro Manila