I Am Proud to be A Filipino

I am a Filipino, I come from islands rippled with sunWhere

days are green fires and nights are warmWith moons and stars.
Girdling my loins is blood rich as milk For I was born of sultans,
rajahs, kings,Soldiers, heroes who fought to singThe poetry of
freedom. My house is my landVirgin, brown, wombed out of
loam, volcanic rock and shells.Carpeted with rice, corn, coconut
, cane, treesThat rise as temples to grapple winds,Rains, mighty
rivers furrowing the earth.Where I walk, my shadow is a
marriage of flagsMalay, Chinese, Spanish, American,
JapaneseWhile in my bones sleep quietly as a brideVanquished
desires of conquerors who dreamt of empires,Gold, trade and
spice. Though a paly breedI stand with the ancients, for my love
and loyaltyAre as fish to the sea. I am proud of my browness.My
duty and destiny are thirty-three million brown menPlanting
rice, husking coconuts, throwing nets far into the
Pacific.Hacking mountains of iron, coal, chrome,manganese,
and timber to live.We are one and the same. A moving restless
caravanOf dark brown skins building a holy heritage of
democracyPiece by piece with our dreams, sweat and deathAs a
bird builds patiently twig by twigThe warm, brown circle
ofits nest.I am a Filipino. I believe in the goodness and the
bounty of God,I believe in the grandeur of charity and peace as a
cure for the ills of ManFor I am Christian who looks upon all
men and womenAs brothers and sisters whose task is to love.I
believe in my country and in the deathlessness of my flagFor its
every color is a history of courage, sacrifice, deathAgainst any
injustice, tyranny, oppression and hate.
Source: English Arts, 2000