Filipina women, I cry for you
Beautiful women I cry with you
Women of strength I see and hear you
Amazing women I learn from you
Daybreak without any food
or time to think
All lined up
ready to work
Moving towards the green valley
still not able to think
feeling numb, feeling worthless
a failure to my country
a disgrace to myself.
time passes by
seems like centuries as the sun grows
brighter
and the air more humid and hot.
Filipino women, I cry for
you
Women of strength I see and hear you
Amazing women I learn from you
Burning sun
seering the brown skin of my people
Piercing the hopes
the days gone by
Sweat dripping to the ground
the rich soil of their dreams
falling lower and lower
Dry skin quickly picking green circles
pick & drop
Pick & Drop
into the container so big
Never a time to rest
Never a time to stop
Hear the sorrows and beating hearts echoing
far and wide
Our hands cry out as we touch the bosom of our souls
Darkness prevails
sweat now so dry
tired hands paralized
faces withered away
skin so dark and wrinkled
skin so dry and chapped
Eyes still hoping
heart still holding on
to faith.
I wrote this for the Filipina women who came to America in the early 1930s to work in farms picking peas all day long. This is only an excerpt of the poem it is much longer than this and I dedicate it for all the Filipina women.
Maria Eleanor Tadina TLHB94B@prodigy.com