1 | heirloom
Every crime
goes unpunished
under the watchful eye
of empire.
How else do you think
revolutions are born?
Long after this is over,
there are things they will never admit to,
things that will be lost to time, freed from the
amber of our long memory after we have died.
Once they have passed the point of remembrance,
everything forgotten will live on
as the unseen pain of our descendants.
They will paint them
in subtle shades of wrong,
long after those who’ve convinced us
that freedom must always come
at the cost of desolation
are gone.
Catherine Liao is a queer Filipino poet and historical fiction writer. Their works focus primarily on discussions of identity following the loss of history to colonialism. They have a soft spot for beautiful, heartbreaking writing and stories that explore the achingly human sides of history. They're fine with any pronouns, and you can find them on Twitter, @lagunabayfables