Sarah Jane
(for Sarah Jane Salazar)
By Apolinario Villalobos
Are there other women like you
Who walked the earth in bare innocence?
Are there other women like you
Who bore on their shoulders heavy burden?
Robbed of blessings and happiness
That should have molded your gay youth
Not knowing that it was sheer poverty
Though for you, that’s life, as you thought.
Despite all those, Sarah, you persisted
Still hoping, you would grow through them
And still with that sweet smile on your lips
The better life you wished, remained a dream.
(Sarah Jane Salazar was the first HIV-AIDS Filipino victim who came out in the open. She admitted that poverty drove her to work in beer joints even at a young adolescent age. She died of the disease without blaming anybody.)
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