Winnipeg, Manitoba
Until the Next Rising, The Final Storm!
Levy Abad
(Dec 17, 2022)
To be hated by lords and oppressors
To be calumnized by wolves
Attacked by traitors and snakes
Jailed, tortured, slayed by butchers
Such is the path of revolutionaries
To be embraced by the exploited workers
Esteemed by enslaved serfs
Wept upon by patriotic masses
To share in the tears and blood of martyrs
Is paradise
So weep not for him who died for you
But rise and fight for justice
Wherever there is oppression, murder resists!
The spirit of martyrs’ call to revolt
Why worry when prophets will rise again
When warriors will be reborn
When people’s sages will write tomes
In the womb of our suffering motherland
To take the arduous path to freedom
The arrows are in the tree branches waiting
The spears and the guns in the ore mines
The bows rest and the triggers are still
Until the next rising, the final storm!
About Levy Abad
Levy Abad is a Filipino-Canadian singer-songwriter, recording artist, author and cultural activist living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His songs focus on workers, migrants and human rights’ issues. Levy’s poem “Leaving” was featured in the Journal of the Manitoba Historical Society. This poem was translated into Filipino under the title “Paglisan,” in Akdaan 2, Literary Anthology. Another poem titled “Salamat Inay,” (Thank You Mother) appeared in Akdaan 3, Literary Anthology. He wrote songs about the plight of Indigenous peoples, such as “Souls Taken Away” and “Daughter She Can’t Find.” You can watch the video of these songs in YouTube.
(Jose Maria ‘Joma’ Sison, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) died on Friday, December 16, 2022 after a two-week long hospitalization in Utrecht, The Netherlands where he has been in self-exile since 1987.)