Thursday, July 26, 2012

CADAVER’S BIOGRAPHY

CADAVER’S BIOGRAPHY

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


vermin upon vermin gather in mounds
undistinguished from the morsel
felled by it’s ego’s date with Grim Ripper

25, 50, 100, etc
are found without names in named or unnamed
cemeteries

uncelebrated figures
are puzzles that are delightful to civil
libertarians’ appetites for enigmas

--shadows without tales
or felled bodies do have sagas of pain
or joy unaffected by the Roman slaughter
of holy and unholy souls on Golgotha’s foot


[Writ. 11 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

MARSHES OF CANDABA

MARSHES OF CANDABA

 Erle Argonza y Delago


When hawks and other living flyers
Set foot on swampy fields for feeding
Tis a marvelous sight that glows the eyes
As mark of platonic appreciation

Where muddy waters used to fill
The air with constant foul-smelling vapors
And gift the neighboring men and women
With malaria and ailments and more
And leave no space that’s fertile enough
For crops and edible greens
And there vehicles run agog
When torrents bring oceanic floods
No more is this worthy of anyone’s esteem
Than to ignore it for its fecal state

Melons and fruits and rice now abound
In this once noxious forbidden land
No more is Hope rekindled the better
Than on the marshes of Candaba

Fly! Fly! Beloved Eagle to the peasant’s nest!
And laud him with your hymns of joy
For his victorious heartwarming travails on swamps
Indeed make him a true human champion.


[Writ. 06 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]


Saturday, July 14, 2012

POLICEMAN

POLICEMAN

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Policeman! Throngs of multitudes are
Waiting for your return to civility!

On account of the erosion of your image
As a reliable enforcer of statutes
By your recalcitrant engagements in
Extortions and rackets and every condemnable
Act that are well perceived by the periscopic oculars
Of the consummate public;

Come home, policeman! Come home
To the moral niche of civility!

For to extract money from laboring motorists
Traders and pedlars who may no more
Be better than the poorest fellows
Of yours whose every cent that you
Embezzle will accrue to the rupture
Of the noblest dignity;

Come home, policeman! Come home
To the powerhouse of civility!

For to bust striking workingment or to
Train guns on dissenting marchers or to
Equate to criminal acts those that are
Worthy of appreciation as they are
Motivated by desires for justice
Will cost you your sweet acceptance
By the same people whom you ought to protect;

Come home, policeman! Come home to
The sanctuary of civility!

People are surely waiting for you
Not excluding the gunslinging predators
Who are out to snatch your life
For your treachery and malevolence.

[Writ. 06 June, AUF, Angeles City, Pampanga]





Thursday, July 5, 2012

WHEN YOU NEED A NEWS REPORT


WHEN YOU NEED A NEWS REPORT

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

If you’ve gone through a commotion
Or an accident of sorts
And you feel the urge to summon
Newsreporters to the scripts

Ah! Don’t ever waste your sweat
On thick layered phone directories
To call on foreign newsmen to the fore
For these souls today are hounded
On cryptic suspicions of support
They give to rebels on the hills

You might as well call up the hounders
Who are craftsmen of psywar ars
Who don’t matter if 1,000 differs from 10,000
Or whether Mr X didn’t or did commit Action Y
For as long as reports serve the purpose
Of fueling more wars and battle gores
And inflate the raison d’etre
Of brave regimentation and war mania


[Writ. 06 June 1988, AUF, Angeles City, Pampanga]



SIMPLE WORDS


SIMPLE WORDS

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

In every production of my pen
Of full narrative or poem
I’m compelled to write in simple
Words that folks could comprehend

It’s no joke to dazzle minds
With jargons and magical words
For just like magic on a wand’s stroke
Will make the denouement outpace
The cognition of the enthusiastic viewer
Will only obscure the thought presented
And leave the consciousness dangling
On rotten vines of superstition and illusion

For I’m supposed to offer
Lines that shatter false images
It’s so that every undertaking
Of thinking and imagining
Will irradiate the knowing viewer
With rays of clarity and concreteness


[Writ. 06 June 1988, Angeles City, Pampanga, on a visit to the Angeles University Foundation.]