JESSE’S POEM
Jose Dalisay
If this was what I died for,
Let no one grieve.
When wife became widow
She could not believe
That hurtful accident could make
Of loss a boundless gain
And of my bones a pillow
To dream away the pain.
If this was what I died for
Then I live on.
My adjourned crusade
Shall now be won.
Between the two of us we knew
This was always she—
The one to crush a rock in hand
To set the jewel free.
If this was what I died for
Let us rejoice.
The mother of our children
Has found her voice
Singing neither lullabies
Nor dirges for the dead
But battle hymns of love and hope
For the armies to be led.
(Jesse Robredo was Secretary of the Interior and Local Governments under President Benigno Aquino111 from 2010 until his untimely death in a plane crash in 2012.)