IN FLIGHT (Poem 40)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Let my flight be a shaman that heals
The gathered wounds in my heart
Wounds inflicted by the despicable slaying
Of my brothers who have struggled arduously
For causes soaked in the aura of Lady Justice.

O! My heart is slowly eaten up
By grief so deep upon the thought
Of the murder of leaders whose undying faith
In world-changing dreams have wavered not
Leaders tempered by the immense response
Of millions of fellows upon their call

What is martyrdom if not the spilling of more
Nutrients that fertilize the sublime ideals planted
By felled patriots on the soil of humanity?
Martyrdom is likewise the sunlight
That nourishes the planted dreams with radiance.
‘Tis also the blessed water that quenches
The thirst of wakened dreamers
Even as the growth of the rooted aspirations
Will find fruition and perpetration ad aeternum.

Martyrdom wakens up the hibernating power.
It turns the grounds of the impossible
Into the haven of the possible.

[Writ. 21Sept. 1987, Univ. of the Philippines, Quezon City, M.Manila.]