By: Erica Parilla

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally intended to be read out loud with emphasis and emotion. Slam poetry is a means by which to express passions, fears, and world issues among many other topics.

Enslaved,

Dominated,

Drawn to war;

We fought and suffered together through it all.

Branded,

Stamped;

They left their footprints on us with these scars.

We shared tears, laughter;

We shared triumph and victory.

We watched the world as one.

So why do you turn your back on me now,

Why do you look at them and not me?

Why do you take pride on those scars,

Why do you not embrace the us that’s left?

You’re forgetting our core,

You’re forgetting our history before them,

You’re forgetting me,

You’re forgetting yourself.

Are the scars so deep,

Are the brands so thick,

That you’ve taken pride in the scars they put on you,

And has become ashamed of your true color?

Why do you cry help to them?

They’re the ones who’ve damaged you in the first place!

You might as well kneel to them,

Call their names in prayer,

Build an altar,

A shrine,

A church in their names!

Why did we fight for independence?

Why did our heroes die fighting?

The reasons have become so blurry,

Because you forget that they’re scars!

They are not your skin!

They are scars!

Scars of hundreds of years enslaved,

Scars of being tampered!

Scars of our cultures erased,

Scars of our heroes trying to conserve our dignity and pride!

But what has become of your pride?

That’s not the pride we’ve fought for.

That’s a misplaced pride, at best,

A treason, at worst!

Be ashamed of yourself!

I’d rather you hide yourself and those scars than see you flaunting it to the world with a stupid pride!

“Ang bayan ko’y tanging ikaw.”

My nation is only you.

What the hell happened to that?

Be ashamed of yourself!

Not for who you are,

But for who you have become!

“Ang bayan ko’y tanging ikaw.”

Remember that?