IN FLIGHT (Poem 42)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


In flight
Never shall I neglect the teaching
I’ve learned then as an enthused Thespian:
My acting out of roles in the theatre stage
Is the sublime act of shaping my acting out
Of myriad roles in the world of the here-and-now
Where one confronts multitudes of audiences
The roles I portray as plenty as millions of mushrooms
Spread across the verdant backdrop of the Earth.

For if before the audiences I’d make sense
As one whose message was accepted with clarity
Even as the rhythms and moods
And my own body language enabled the convincing
Then I’m as good as a man of success.

Each time of course that my theatrics
Undercut the audiences’ doubtings
Rendering my message unto exotic food.


[Writ. 23 Sept. 1987, Univ. of the Philippines, Quezon City, M.Manila.]