TO SOME YOUTH LEADERS CIRCA 1991

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


O! Star youth of the Rizalandian race!
Truly so lovable and minds quizzical
Begotten as leaders yon echelon of thy gesselschaft
Who are to me so near and made so
By dancing with me together in the great hall
Of academic undertaking: tangoed we
As authentically ordained partners: ordained by fate
To feel and think together in states o’ sobriety
By commands of duty and obligation
For whom my everything my mind and heart
Had been encumbered for as my sole offering
Offering my soul’s betrothed my soul’s pure halo
My person a gift given collateralized
Without me demanding for the basest return
Yet but build they their gesselschaft and self sterlingly.

O! Knights and knightesses of today and tomorrows
How in the world can I besmirch thee all
Of whose countenance are to me endeared with plenitude?
Behold there isn’t one iota of doubt in me
‘Bout your knighthood’s prowess and trade’s wherefores

There at the summit of Cheop’s pyramid
Resides my esteem for thee all:
I shall lift up thy esteem
Towards abodes of gods
‘Twere firmaments
Fade in the dazzling light a-beauty
Of the aeternal Thou

I can no more bethink of reasons
For the begrudged flames in thy hearts
I now the crucified caper before thine eyes
Ne’er meant I to unlock a Pandora’s box
For which findest thy self in unfounded apprehension
Not for my endeared partners ne’er for thou

O! How I hope that grasp thou all so clear
The sincerest meaning behind my swearwords of late
That we ought march as one to champion
The triumphant denouement of our joint deeds
In their unique sense be they simple or compounded.


[Writ. 27 July 91, Univ. of the Philippines Manila]

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]