You Left The Prints Of Your Shadows Poem by Cheryl L. DaytecYañgot

(For Ratul and Nicole)

Fate found you where comfort is beached
It brought you to fountains of sorrow
You swam in the slimes of utter despair
And ate fish dried by the heat of poverty
I watched you lovingly spoon the rice
Harvested from fields watered by sweat
And the throbbing blood of tough dreams
We got lost in the dialectics of oppression
Lazily muffling the monotone of mosquitoes
I felt the weight of your shadow‘s grief
And heard it weeping under our laughter
You wondered how mirth thrives in tragedy

In vegetable gardens along mountain ridges
Hearts break from gluttony and exploitation
Easily soothed- even by a stranger’s love
The peasants will still look to the age-old sun
For a small glimmer to illuminate the path
Of posterity searching for better tomorrows
Friends have come, friends have gone away
But there, your sympathy will be remembered
You, as other friends, left your shadows’ prints
As you wiped beads of sweat from your brows
While lifting beans from the nadir of hunger
To the fragile platform of trifling, elusive hope

Your feet drag as you leave this dejected land
You are in its memory; it heard you pray for it
You left behind heavy prints of your shadows
And the rich echo of your cries and laughter
Blending with our summons for redemption
Luck has abandoned this land, but you will not
Now, you bear the weight of our portion
It will trail you like a determined sleuth
In the corners of opulence, in the sea of joy
When you measure hope against damnation
It will invade the warmth of your comfort
Luxury in the backdropp will trouble you

But such is fate; such is curse; such is luck
The happiness of hearts who love humanity
Is scourged with agony for the lesser worlds
We suffer. Once. Then again, and then again
Till our souls are purified, become beautiful
Let us keep the heavy prints of your shadows
While you embrace the burden of our dreams
Then we meet again, more beautiful than now.

(Ratul Bhattacharyya and Nicole Smith are young people from the First World who gave up the comforts of easy life to work among the poor and the depressed in the Philippines. 25 June 2008)