Hold the line
“Isn’t it strange,” one of the vigilantes told me, “that it’s the families of the dead who have to run?” ~ Patricia Evangelista, speaking in Oslo, at the Nobel Torchlight Procession 2021.
Let me tell you what terror is.
She speaks firmly, holding the line.
She speaks of a country plunged even deeper
Than the last time, into a mire
That numbs hearts and minds
To keep them safe — because the State won’t.
Terror is what comes between
Bereavement and mourning
In the humid climes
Where blood drains constantly
Into dank sewers
And lives have
Cheap price tags,
Are reaped to meet quotas
Like harvests of sugarcane
Breaking sacada backs
For mere pittances per ton.
Terror is the gag
That muffles
Helpless weeping,
Where those who speak
With voices raised
For the violated
Are silenced in various ways,
Including by assassin’s bullet,
But not limited to
Tarring and feathering
At the public pillory,
And by financial strangulation,
And with digital lynching.
Terror is not immune, however,
And has no impunity
When there are those who
Keep the faith,
Hold the line,
Stand fast against
The State-sanctioned
Stifling of hope.
There are still those
In my sorry country
Who will not give in,
Who raise high hard-won
Hope and freedom,
Like a tattered flag
That stubbornly waves
Through the night wind
To find the first rays
Of morning.
The families of the dead
Won’t have to run.
The families of the oppressed
Will have justice.
The nation bound and gagged
Will be free.
This is the line they hold,
And this is the tomorrow
For which they
Hold that line
Drawn deep
Into the eroding sand
Of a tyranny
That has no hope,
No future,
And no place
Where we live.
We draw breath yet,
Enough to raise protest
And keep protesting.
Our voices will soar.
Hold on.
Hold the line.
Dawn is breaking.
Tyranny dies in the light.
Speak. Only the vile
Have anything left to lose.
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Read the full text of Patricia’s speech here:
https://www.rappler.com/world/global-affairs/patricia-evangelista-speech-nobel-torchlight-procession/?fbclid=IwAR15jdvMHCXSE-rehGIgkWybCWcMwC_qdCNF3abJUw744ZOb4MG2iWzg8EU
