MORNING RHYTHM

MORNING RHYTHM

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Silence breaks

Morning mist

Meets the day anew in sweet embrace

Birds aflight

Cats shall rest

As the sun erases evening’s haze.

Buses roll

Flies a-swarm

Off abound they’re freed from bottle’s cork.

Grandpas sneer

Dads consume

Coffee and news pages before work.

Crackers crack

Mobiles whine

Hospitals’ own occupants balloon.

Traffic grows

Roads go blocked

Terrified policeman act like goon.

Planes arrive

Flyers rest

Peddlers sell their wares with lemonade.

Bags prepared

Pockets swing

Joy’s corrupt official’s mood in trade.

[Writ. 19 October 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]

WHEN DEMOCRACY COMES

WHEN DEMOCRACY COMES

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Land of ours! You’re bent on reminding

Us anew: that our Sentinels again

Will rob us clear of our well-earned

Civil rights and arrogate for themselves

All powers of government.

So what? Yes, so what?

Will democracy become so weary

As to naively recline upon coal embers

That are our Sentinels’ hearts?

Has democracy anyway flowered

Into full bloom in your soil as to assure

Your history’s place in the citadels

Of human grandeur?

Land of ours! Relay these utterances

To the vanguards of treachery:

Democracy is verily like a fruit

That has ripened in the beings

Of the workingmen in shops and farms:

A dazzling show twill manifest

As it finally blooms to maturity

And edifices of fascistic greed twill

Burn down to remain as ashes forever

A signal to all humanity of your

Patriots’ repute as victors and

You: a bastion of freedom bearers.

[Writ. 13 October 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]

DON’T SLEEP TONIGHT O! CITY LIGHTS!

DON’T SLEEP TONIGHT O! CITY LIGHTS!

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

May the glowing lights at night

Not stop at all for rest or sleeps.

Beware! Beware!

Snakes are bound to strike

When patriots of most noble faith

Sense slimmest the hordes of traitors;

Sentinels we’ve long trusted

May ride astride lightning bolt

To incinerate our dens of freedom

And leave the lores of democracy

To the nothingness of decay.

Tyranny is ripe once more, a fruit

The would-be autocrats savor the best.

O! City lights!

Please don’t sleep at night!

[Writ. 13 October 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]

RADIO’S MALAISE

RADIO’S MALAISE

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Radio should be a gentle mentor

whose teachings we take as our own

as we cherish each fact and fable

that it offers us canned lessons;

but Radio is consumed up

by its seeking for money and profits

as every sound that it releases

makes us believe that we are in New York

or London or elsewhere other than Filipinas.

Alien sounds can only nurture best

the filthiest image of our national stature.

[Writ. 07 October 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]