CRIMES

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


The still calm of the morning
Is as deafening as stories
About crimes
Printed in the dailies
Broadcast on radio

Crime has become the cheapest
Merchandise
Flaunted by its own law
Of supply and demand
Its price roughshodly lowered
By abundance
More abundant
Than mangoes and guavas

They need not be bought at all
So much that even the harmless streets
Of recluse villages
Become zoos
Littered with
Salvaged
Bodies


[Writ. 29 May 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

POLICEMAN

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Policeman! Throngs of multitudes are
Waiting for your return to civility!

On account of the erosion of your image
As a reliable enforcer of statutes
By your recalcitrant engagements in
Extortions and rackets and every condemnable
Act that are well perceived by the periscopic oculars
Of the consummate public;

Come home, policeman! Come home
To the moral niche of civility!

For to extract money from laboring motorists
Traders and pedlars who may no more
Be better than the poorest fellows
Of yours whose every cent that you
Embezzle will accrue to the rupture
Of the noblest dignity;

Come home, policeman! Come home
To the powerhouse of civility!

For to bust striking workingment or to
Train guns on dissenting marchers or to
Equate to criminal acts those that are
Worthy of appreciation as they are
Motivated by desires for justice
Will cost you your sweet acceptance
By the same people whom you ought to protect;

Come home, policeman! Come home to
The sanctuary of civility!

People are surely waiting for you
Not excluding the gunslinging predators
Who are out to snatch your life
For your treachery and malevolence.

[Writ. 06 June, AUF, Angeles City, Pampanga]