Bamboo Telegraph Boy

Why yes, in one such epic, a bolo shines, singing as it slashes. In another, two equally graceful heroes clash for three years without letup, breaking only for lunch and weddings, for moments of marveling at each other, forgetting arrears, inspiring harvests.

From yet another, a boy rolls wartime messages into cuts of bamboo, flits from guerilla camp to guerilla camp, matures into a leader of leaders, facing uniforms seeking to upturn homes and desecrate graves. Sharp and polite, he rejected offers—women, power, and a fat envelope of cash—his iron discipline acknowledged one night by a shower of fire. In perhaps the most famous of these epics, a diver completes a jigsaw puzzle of bones. A dog growls and barks, a rooster flaps its wings and crows. They rebuild a house. They retrieve a hero from the land of the dead.

After decades, we unroll a small message. Blood says no to everything. Save for assembling and singing and dancing. Redeeming all we cherished, all we lost.

Sa okasyon ng Cordillera Day, saktong 45 na taon makalipas ang pagpaslang kay Macli-ing Dulag. Inspirado ng bansag na “bamboo telegraph boy” sa pahina 99 ng 50-50: Talambuhay ng mga Pangunahing Personalidad ng Batas Militar (2022) nina Roderick C. Javar, Ruben Jeffrey A. Asuncion, Axle Christien J. Tugano, at Mark Joseph P. Santos.