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Servando Magbanua 20 Nobyembre 1980
Eastward the Winds of Song
For all their contours the hills
look flat and low
as dewdrenched we nightwalk
out of the primeval forest.
Our guns glint a dusky gray
in the moonlight;
instinctively we merge with new-
found shadows.
Farther, brown paddies form a
maze of linear patterns
and sugar cane fields stretch
as far as the eyes can see-
how alien at first the lowlands
of our dreams!
(Fleetingly with yet a longing
we cannot name we look back
at towering Taganhin majestic above
the rugged mountain districts
and smile ... )
From afar floats a morning
lullaby - there!
In clusters of bamboo trees
tacked on the silvery slopes
In wombs of creeksides
mysterious and dark
stabs of light undulate from
sparse and unfamiliar huts
beckoning the Red nomads of night.
"Pasa bilis! " our squad leader motions.
We hurry on with winged feet
our hearts throbbing wildly
as eastward the winds of song
draw us nearer, nearer,
to the land of the haciendas....
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