Have Mercy, Mary Jane (A poem)

The poem below was written for Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on Indonesian death row. 

The 30-year-old mother of two, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia, says she has accepted her fate. 

The Philippines on Friday, April 24, filed a second appeal, asking Indonesia to review the case of Mary Jane. 

Unless the last-minute legal efforts to save her work, or by some miracle clemency is granted, Mary Jane could be executed by firing squad on Tuesday, April 28. (READ: The race to save Mary Jane Veloso from death)

Strange that at the eleventh hour

you would have to plead for mercy,
when it is you from whom
forgiveness must be asked.

Mary Jane
we have, without a care
without the slightest compunction or guilt
left your luggage at the conveyor.
It wheels around mechanically – that cycle of poverty –
and yet with each turn, that which
we are supposed to recognize instantly and bring back home,
is left more and more alone.

Now we stand by you, pleading for mercy 
at the feet of the wrong master,
carrying the wrong luggage,
in the island of Nusa Kambangan.

Once again we have to stare at death in the face
through eyes so desperately strong.
We blink and panic and rage and cry,
but you, like all innocents, 
would smile –
smile
through the speeding bullets as they tear through
the government’s five years of neglect and lies.

I believe that you accepted this fate
in the hope that someday,
we the people 
learn not to accept a fate that isn’t ours.

Peace be to all victims of gross injustice
who fight until their very last breath.

May all your sons and daughters 
recognize that piece of luggage 
stuffed full of sacrifice,
and slash open 
the bulging secret pockets
of criminals and capitalist bureaucrats
who peddle heady dreams of neoliberalism,
while tricking daughters of sugarcane workers
and mothers of two,

while tricking millions of others
into believing
that forced migration will bring us 
somewhere 
anywhere
other than our heart’s true home,

and gift hard labor 
with something,
anything
just to be able to survive. 

Have mercy, Mary Jane,
but do not pardon the guilty.
You have not yet gone and already
– we have death island souveniers in our hands. 

(April 26, 2015)

– Rappler.com

Ilang-Ilang Quijano is executive director of PinoyMedia Center, a non-profit media organization that publishes the newsmagazine Pinoy Weekly. She is a documentary filmmaker and writer.