IN FLIGHT (Poem 2)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


What do I lament
That I now render myself
Towards flights
O’er the planet’s fertile bowls?

Planet Earth! Why
In my cradle land
Leave me in severity

(Of) existential asphyxiation?—
‘Tis no desire of any bird
Nay of any eagle alive!

For a bird is made
To fly!

To fly!
And grasp the magnificence
Of the world
That is
Upon its eyes
A living carnival.


[Writ. 20 Aug. 1987, Univ. of the Philippines, Quezon City, M.Manila.]