MENDICANT O’ STREET

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.]