Mental Colonization

I am colonization personified.
The foundation of my being,
my language of thought
belongs not to those ancestors
whose blood now feeds my freedom,
but to the slave master
whose oppressive bark
echoes deep in my mind.

I am colonization personified.
My strengths have died
as I have tried
with Filipinocentricity exemplified,
to show my mother; whose eyes cry
as they scan the horizon
and leave her with a sigh,
that in her smile
Philippineswill never lie.

I am colonization personified.
Read these words
and you will know this is true!

(originally by Thabiso Nkoana, an African... modifed for Filipino contextualization)