‘they dimmed the lights to burn us down.’

a single cut off of the switch

candles blown out, stars hidden

in the pitch black night;

in darkness, we have become the same

in darkness, we are all the same:

no difference in skin to identify,

no accent to judge you by, 

no religion to vilify—

we all need to be allies,

that when the dawn comes we will rise with hope

run into the birth of morning;

we are the pearl shining bright in the east,

and the sun will wake with us.

the tears, the sweat that

we have spilled for the country will drown out the hellfire.

they may try to burn us down, but we will be burning on,

we will not lose hope

we will be the hope.

———————————————————————————————

a/n: what happened has been much too much. manchester. bangkok. syria. marawi. wherever. this is not okay. we can't go on like this.

to my fellow filipinos, please stay safe. i may not be from marawi, but know that my heart goes out to you. you will get through this. 

let's make peace our war cry.