WHEN

I
SEE
BARONG -BARONG
MAXIMO D. RAMOS

When I see a barong-barong neighborhood in the heart of war-torn Manila;

When I behold beside the Pasig sudden lean-tos defended against sun and rain with
salvaged sheets of tin;
When I take a truck ride through Suburbia and find nipa huts clustered within the shellpunched walls of former mansions of stone
I do not look away in shame or throw up my hands despairing for my people.
I fill my chest with the bracing breeze of this my country and say:
Though my race has been pushed around in his own land for nearly half a thousand
years,
I do not look away in shame or throw up my hands despairing for my people.
Though my race has been pitted against themselves down the centuries;
I find joy to discover that they are whole and remained unbroken in spirit;
Building them makeshift huts of nipa and salvaged tin and standing straight with heads
against the stars.

When I see a barong-barong neighborhood in the heart of war-torn

Manila;
When I behold beside the Pasig sudden lean-tos defended against sun
and rain with salvaged sheets of tin;
When I take a truck ride through Suburbia and find nipa huts clustered
within the shell-punched walls of former mansions of stone

I do not look away in shame or throw up my hands despairing for my

people.
I fill my chest with the bracing breeze of this my country and say:
Though my race has been pushed around in his own land for nearly half
a thousand years,

Though my race has been pitted against themselves down the

centuries;
I find joy to discover that they are whole and remained
unbroken in spirit;
Building them makeshift huts of nipa and salvaged tin and
standing straight with heads against the stars.