MARSHES OF CANDABA

MARSHES OF CANDABA

Erle 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]