Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
To serious thinkers an X unknown
is the sum of financial technocrats
and foreign debtors
but to the paupered lot
the sum means
more tasty diets consisting
of liver flukes
of ascaris
of tuberculosis
of kwashiorkor
of bronchopneumonia
of pinworms
of schistosomiasis
A sum of parasites
is always equal to parasites
and nothing less
[Writ. 04 June 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]
Showing posts with label 3rd World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3rd World. Show all posts
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
DON’T OFFER ME DIRGES (I’m But A Slum Habitue)
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Don’t offer me dirges or marches for graveyards
I am no more a rat eater whose niche
Is this make-shift tenement, no longer
Human by the yardsticks of Grecian perfection
And Roman artistry, a fragment too unfit
For the wholeness of Renaissance’s imageries.
May I invite to dinner my neighborhood’s constant visitors
From state halls and army barracks
Who on not too few occasions offered me
And my neighbors their version of a gift:
Bulldozed tenements and shanties leveled off
Spiced with gunfire that severed resistance.
Felled boys and dead bodies of urban poor
Anyway deserve not the hymns of public praises,
Praises long reserved for princes and taipans.
History’s everyday indeed can’t seem to be
An asset shared by all men alike.
[Writ. 06 Dec. 1988, Proj. 8 Quezon City, M.Manila]
Don’t offer me dirges or marches for graveyards
I am no more a rat eater whose niche
Is this make-shift tenement, no longer
Human by the yardsticks of Grecian perfection
And Roman artistry, a fragment too unfit
For the wholeness of Renaissance’s imageries.
May I invite to dinner my neighborhood’s constant visitors
From state halls and army barracks
Who on not too few occasions offered me
And my neighbors their version of a gift:
Bulldozed tenements and shanties leveled off
Spiced with gunfire that severed resistance.
Felled boys and dead bodies of urban poor
Anyway deserve not the hymns of public praises,
Praises long reserved for princes and taipans.
History’s everyday indeed can’t seem to be
An asset shared by all men alike.
[Writ. 06 Dec. 1988, Proj. 8 Quezon City, M.Manila]
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
WISH SHE COMES O! COCONUT TREE!
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Wish for me O! Coconut Tree!
Of benign Filipinas that She comes in beauty
Her luggage filled to the brims
With love and tenderness. Let her caress
My longing heart. I shall meet her
Under your secure shade O! Coconut Tree!
Where we shall pledge the vow
Of eternal sharing of trust and care;
A bnd you’ll judge with favors
One stroke like a million devoted caretakers’.
[Writ. 19 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]
Wish for me O! Coconut Tree!
Of benign Filipinas that She comes in beauty
Her luggage filled to the brims
With love and tenderness. Let her caress
My longing heart. I shall meet her
Under your secure shade O! Coconut Tree!
Where we shall pledge the vow
Of eternal sharing of trust and care;
A bnd you’ll judge with favors
One stroke like a million devoted caretakers’.
[Writ. 19 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]
JUAN’S NIGHTMARE
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Sleeping while inner rage brews
Inside one’s cognitive vat does not make
A sleep the fulfillment of a day’s toil.
Not for Juan the unlettered and dispossessed
Whose wretchedness is a correlate of wealth
Amassed by his other brothers whose
Purses and stocks do bulge ad infinitum.
Not for Juan. Reserved inner rage
Sooner unfolds into a thousand nightmares:
Spoiled is the timeless joy of dream’s utopia.
[Writ. 19 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]
Sleeping while inner rage brews
Inside one’s cognitive vat does not make
A sleep the fulfillment of a day’s toil.
Not for Juan the unlettered and dispossessed
Whose wretchedness is a correlate of wealth
Amassed by his other brothers whose
Purses and stocks do bulge ad infinitum.
Not for Juan. Reserved inner rage
Sooner unfolds into a thousand nightmares:
Spoiled is the timeless joy of dream’s utopia.
[Writ. 19 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]
Saturday, May 22, 2010
MARSHES OF CANDABA
Erle Frayne 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]
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]
Sunday, May 16, 2010
MENDICANT O’ STREET
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
Beloved Mendicant o’ Street
Please misread not as selfishness
My apparent refusal to render you coins
When you’re on the heels
Of riders I’m astride on
Surely my heart bleeds profusely
Over your thankless predicament
Filled I am with guilt and shame
For apparent deeds of misanthropy
Each occasion of your presence
Has the whole sky come a-crashing down
Your eyes narrate the cryptic tale
Of Hades devouring the Earth
Just as my mind speaks to you
What it thinks of the occasion
That to offer you pieces of coins
Won’t transport you to amelioration
Better yet if t’were a stable job
I’d give as presents unto you which awefully I
Do not at the moment possess.
[Writ. 05 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]
Beloved Mendicant o’ Street
Please misread not as selfishness
My apparent refusal to render you coins
When you’re on the heels
Of riders I’m astride on
Surely my heart bleeds profusely
Over your thankless predicament
Filled I am with guilt and shame
For apparent deeds of misanthropy
Each occasion of your presence
Has the whole sky come a-crashing down
Your eyes narrate the cryptic tale
Of Hades devouring the Earth
Just as my mind speaks to you
What it thinks of the occasion
That to offer you pieces of coins
Won’t transport you to amelioration
Better yet if t’were a stable job
I’d give as presents unto you which awefully I
Do not at the moment possess.
[Writ. 05 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]
Thursday, May 6, 2010
ON CRAFTING THE FUTURE
Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago
What is
the promising denouement
of aspirations for betterment
by all the Earth’s dispossessed
if not that
the fidelity
to the visions
they’ve conceived
can unfold
in their nonpassive
creation.
Yes, the future
has shapes and forms
that can be exquisitely
crafted.
[Writ. 27 Sept. 1987, University of the Philippines, QC.]
What is
the promising denouement
of aspirations for betterment
by all the Earth’s dispossessed
if not that
the fidelity
to the visions
they’ve conceived
can unfold
in their nonpassive
creation.
Yes, the future
has shapes and forms
that can be exquisitely
crafted.
[Writ. 27 Sept. 1987, University of the Philippines, QC.]
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