Tell the children I’m afraid to die

Tell the children I’m afraid to die 

(A declamation piece from a distant memory)

Across the  Mindanao skies,
high above the plateaus of Bukidnon,
echoes a voice scared and trembling
from a creature fearing for its life.


“I am the guardians of the mountains.
On the tallest tree of Dalwangan is my lair,

Upon the tallest tree of Mt. Kitanglad,

I’ve built my nest, maybe my last.

If I lose it, my doom is near.

The dying of the trees is killing me like a knife!

Only then be the mourning or the sunset of my life.”

“From the air I’ve watched
the children of the valleys,
playing, laughing!

I watched them keenly with my eagle eyes
and hope starts burning softly, warmly
in my breasts like a kindling fire.

They’re the future!

They are my future!

Go! Tell the children I’m afraid to die!


Tell the children my life is linked,
with all the life in my forest home,
with the boar and the wild flowers;
the lawaan and the kalaw;
 and the fishes of the forest stream!

 Tell them that each blow of the logger’s axe,
chops of a post from my mountain home
and every bullet a hunter fires,
finds its way into my heart.
Tell them that when I die,
you’ll see a cloudless sky,
where I used to fly.

A thousand trees unmoored,
hauled by the greedy demons,
in shapeless coffins,
And a million creatures,
great and small, baking lifeless
 under the hostile sun, barren valleys,
 arid plains and waterless riverbeds.

Tell the children I’m afraid to die!
 Their hearts are soft,
their minds are young!
We must live together,
or together perish under the sun.
Tell them, that each tree they plant
becomes a new pillar of my mountain home
 and helps to make the rivers stay.
 Tell them that rivers water the land
and let it bear fruit for birds and man.

Tell them that clean air,
bright sunshine and cool refreshing rain
 gives life to everyone.

Let us teach the children
to build a world
that is safe for life.

A world, where we can live together,
you and I.

So speaks the eagle of Dalwangan and Kitanglad,
the eagle of Mindanao
with misty eyes.
We must let the eagle live and fly.