(Untitled)

(Untitled)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Indeed O! sweetest lady
Sweeter still than honey and wine
Whom Dionysos frenzies for delightfully
With whom all men are enthralled by
You gorgeous sight
You are the soothing wave that massages
My tired heart, tired in searching
For you and no one but you

Come forth!
Bring our foreshadowed fusion
To its marvelous close!


[Writ. 27 May 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

WAR

WAR

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


War is the namesake of the islands

A Dantean discernment will not
Permit one to argue that
The archipelago
Is a paradise
Lost or regained

Of the islands’ fetid state
Excrement and humans sanctimoniously fuse
They cajole in ecstatic screams
Over killings and bombings
Gore is everyday’s luscious panorama

We’re brought back to Rome
Here
Where jubilant crowds satiate themselves
With sights of bloody gladiators
In combat

Brought back to Jesus’ Jerusalem still
Since everyone wants to play
Pilate
Guiltless of motives behind
Wars
In hinterlands
In cities

Is gore the imprimatur of honor indeed?
Just like blood is eaten as delicacy?


[Writ. 29 May 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

TO DO OR NOT TO DO SELF-ANNIHILATION

TO DO OR NOT TO DO SELF-ANNIHILATION

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Fate could be embezzler and crook
If bribed it could be
‘Tis when one cuts his/her throat and snuffs
Out life as one cold stone.
Yet fate and life are holy lovers
Self, the blinding love
Inane would be the earth’s own twirling be
If this code wasn’t found.

This itch to knife the body, like
Fly that scans excrement
Will flee when reason for it shies away
When swatters swarm the heaps
That is when one has bridged the self
To the crafting of the world anew
Behold! The diadems in people’s hearts!
Await everyone’s countenance
Like cornfields that a day shan’t miss
Without showers gently sent
By pious clouds from heaven’s floors
Undone is the sizzling heat
And then no more will knifing the body
Ever cross the willful mind.

[Writ. 27 May 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]