IN FLIGHT (Poem 39)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Let me in flight bear the tricky vogue
Of breathing. ‘Tis no plain engulfing of air
Deep into our bag breathers and then breath-out.

Breathe the air of Life!
Don’t ever breathe like one who’ll later walk
Like an intoxicated cockroach dazed.
Don’t ever breathe so un-artfully whence later
You’re cast down as a phlegmatic mammal.

Breathe the substance of Life
That’s when the pumping is gentle
And rubbish air is smoothly expired
And when sweat cast off debris
In strenuous flexing of the muscles.

The mind thereafter is cleansed
As one’s probing make the answers
To myriad questions bend upon the inner screen.

Breathing is a key to many doors
That lead me to my destinations.


[Writ. 19 Sept. 1987, Univ. of the Philippines, Quezon City, M.Manila.]