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.]

WHY NOT HUMILITY?

WHY NOT HUMILITY?

  Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Why not be humble at all moments

Of association with fellowmen?

Didn’t the shopworker teach you

That one rudiment of survival

Is the intelligent recognition

Of your limitations’ omnipresence

Inspite of endowments of craft & wealth?

For there too are circumstances

That are beyond you grasps

In the snares of Naivete

And may even cause a furor

Of gig and limitless giggle?

For Boastfulness and Arrogance

Are twin eagles of deception

That once they’d lift you aflight

They’d shake you off the winds to crash

Tragically on the solid ground

Of defeat and humiliation?

O! Humility!

You are a noble messenger

That speaks for transparent Security

One that makes a person immensely cherished

By the commonwealth of all men.

[Writ. 05 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]

ATOMIC SLUMBER

ATOMIC SLUMBER

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Go far away to the remotest desert

Where you’ll rest forever unnoticed

You pestilent idea of Atomic War!

Have mercy on the farmer

Who’s been wishing to raise

His family to full decency

And so too on the labourer

Whose sweat has been aspiring

To transmute into purest gold

For the betterment of basic living.

Go far away to the remotest desert

Where you’ll be buried in oblivion

You pestilent thought of Atomic War!

Have mercy on children whose smiles

And plays irradiate the world

With untarnished love and devotion

For they deserve to reap

The harvests of good works

They’re noble inheritors of Mother Earth.

Go far away to the remotest desert

Where you shall slumber forever

You pestilent idea of Atomic War!

And may the champion of the Light

Smash all Bombs—abominable icons of Lucifer—

To inutility inasmuch as Life

Has been unto everyone endowed

Not plainly to vaporize

In the hot blazing ovens

Of detonated thermonuclear devices.

[Writ. 04 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

ON MEASURING LOVE

ON MEASURING LOVE

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Love, concern and sincerest care

For the loved one and all loved fellows:

Could these be measured

Like the metered current

That powers the home?

If it were so could devotion be paid

In sheets over sheets of monies?

Perhaps the cats, dogs

And other wondrous pets at home

Can offer the answer:

Wondrous pets don’t count at all

Their kisses and devotion to friends

O! How they keep on giving!

They simply keep on giving!

[Writ. 04 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]

ON RETIREMENT

ON RETIREMENT

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

 

Why dream of retiring at age 60 or 65?

Has life not gloriously revealed

The exquisite beauty within you

That shines all the more

With each day of doing?

Will retirement not compel you

Into dark dens of nothingness

Push you to the brink

Of cancerous boredom that kills

In every second of its conquest?

Continue to share to all fellowmen

The sublime makings of your trade

Be these in simple or intricate form.

For Life has endowed you

With blessings aplenty

Since the first day that you saw

The undying Light of the sun.

[Writ. 04 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

AID, MORE AID!

AID, MORE AID!

   

 Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Why pump the lifeblood

Of poor nations with Aid

From modern Titans?

This Aid’s a footstool of Ceasar.

‘Tis nothing but cancer that encroaches

Upon the weak body of the recipient:

Eroded are the remaining vestiges

Of moral strength for the Poor’s will

To rise from the maelstrom of wretchedness;

‘Tis the fattest of parasites

That rapidly saps all nourishment

From the Poor’s ulcerated belly;

‘Tis an aromatic essence

That later reveals its baneful powers

To asphyxiate the struggling breather

Towards Hamlet sleep.

For by now victims ought to recognize

When abominable vampires strike;

Blood loss in such sucking vein is much too different

From blood gained from an altruistic donor.

[Writ. 04 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]

ON PITFALLS & STARS

  Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

Man,

In times when mind’s soaked

in an intoxicating concoction

of rage and fiery resentment

ought not battle against pitfalls

that are really no pitfalls

when gauged against virtues

that they unintendedly unlock

for such virtues are ever present

in the labyrinth of pursuits

awaiting to float to the surface

of riverine Existence

no matter how inconspicuous these are;

they are stars that are forever

habituating the firmaments

in grandiose beauty,

despite dark clouds

despite dark clouds

[Writ. 02 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila.]