Bedtime stories
Tonight, when you tuck your little darlings
Dear friends
Make them drink their warm milk
And sing them lullabies
About thick chocolates dripping
From magical ladles held
By kind witches who live
In candy colored huts.
Kiss them lightly as they drift
To peaceful slumber.
While we, well, we have children too.
And we tell them tales as well
To send them off
To sleep
We tell our children stories about politicians
Who eat on top of laden tables
As well as under.
Of landlords who own vast lands
But whose manicured nails have never caressed the soil.
We show them pictures of rich capitalists
Who grease their hair and expensive toys
But never their elbows.
Such are the bedtime stories we tell our children.
When our children tire of stories
About our rich kings
We tell them stories about the queen’s warriors.
Soldiers who are well-drilled
In shooting unarmed peasants
Or defenseless workers
Mercenaries whose shield is the civilian populace
Whose generals are foreign.
Such are the tales we tell our children.
But when our own darlings are too afraid
To hear more horror stories
We regale them with the exploits
Of the night warriors
Who tread lightly around newly planted rice
Who are welcomed not by angry barks
But by the wagging tails of neighborhood dogs.
Soldiers whose main weapons are their enlightened minds
Whose shields are the people’s hearts.
Soldiers who are loved and not feared
Warriors whose guns are trained only on the wicked
Whose well-aimed bullets bring hope.
Such are the legends we tell our children.
-9:20 pm
November 29, 2005
Quezon City
