by Lani T. Montreal

I
Was caught
In a crossfire
Once
When I
Thought I could
Not
Die, navigating
Through snipered rooftops
Soldiers
Tying dynamite
Together while smoking
Corey’s
Song blaring
“…can never surrender”
My
Country
On the brink
War,
A thought
We could not
Imagine
If we
Did not rise
Would
There be
Overpasses and traffic
Billboards
Of mestizas
White as lie?

Would
There be
Videokes and megamalls
Massacres
Of bylines
In the countryside
Murmurs
Of coups
In the wind?
  
  

About the Author
Lani T. Montreal is a Filipina educator, writer, performer, and community activist based in Chicago. Her poems have been featured in journals and anthologies (among them, Rattle, Bloodstone, Garland Court Review, Love Gathers All, Pinoy Poetics, Hay(Na)Ku 15, and MiPoesias). In Fall 2018, Finishing Line Press published her first poetry collection: FANBOYS: Poems about Teaching and Learning. Lani writes poetry to create her home in the diaspora. She is the recipient of the 2015 3Arts Djerassi Residency for Playwriting, 2008 3Arts Ragdale Residency, the 2001 Samuel Ostrowsky Award for her memoir “Summer Rain,” and the 1995 JVO Philippine Award for Excellence in Journalism for her environmental expose “Poison in the River.” She is also a 2017 alumna of the Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) Writers’ Workshop and a 2018 alumna of the Poetry Foundation Summer Teachers Institute. A former journalist in the Philippines, Montreal currently teaches writing at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, and writes a blog called “Fil-in-the-gap” (filinthegap.com). She lives and loves in Albany Park with her multi-species, multi-cultural family.”