THE GUERILLA

THE GUERILLA

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Fine, fine is the guerilla
knows s/he that the hinterland
is an infernal zone
where the enemy’s textbook lessons
seem like lost dots and dazed calculi
in a wildly vast encyclopedia

Fine, fine is the guerilla
s/he the master of warfare’s laws
of cunny maneuvers
amid tricky foliages and fields

The guerilla
Just like culture heroes
Is a sung hero


[Writ. 04 June 91. Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

OF ARTIST AND DUSK

OF ARTIST AND DUSK

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


O! Eager artist!
Benign sib of the dusk
Vessel of the spirit of imageries

The dusk—
Is this your fraternal twin
Who reminds you always
Of your noble mission?

You are a speaker
And audio system fused
As one
Before the world

Your absence to many means
A worldless world, lifeless life

The dusk always reminds you
That salads of ideas are
Concocting
In your mind
Waiting to be revealed


[Writ. 04 June 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

MORNING

MORNING

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Morning is a wondrous haven
It emboldens me to beg the plants around
Tell me where’s the heavenly gate
That leads me, leads me
To the folds of Aphrodite
With whom I can best fashion queries
About the whereabouts of my sweet
Lifetime partner

For indeed weary had I grown
I am disdained by time and fate
Faulted though I am guiltless
I simply hasn’t seen the least chimera
Of my love desire even if ‘tis were
But a mere chimera


[Writ. 03 June 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

THOU ART MY BENIGN TALISMAN

THOU ART MY BENIGN TALISMAN

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


You sweetest Lady are my benign talisman
A billion bewitching charmers combined
Your Aphroditean countenance makes
The mind-rending world of peoples
A magical Eden alive
No more can poetry fathom
Your limitless charm and glow
You are to me the endless narrative
All epics’ visions fulfilled at last

[Writ. 27 May 91, Quezon City, M.Manila]

(Untitled)

(Untitled)

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Indeed O! sweetest lady
Sweeter still than honey and wine
Whom Dionysos frenzies for delightfully
With whom all men are enthralled by
You gorgeous sight
You are the soothing wave that massages
My tired heart, tired in searching
For you and no one but you

Come forth!
Bring our foreshadowed fusion
To its marvelous close!


[Writ. 27 May 1991, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]

WAR

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]

TO DO OR NOT TO DO SELF-ANNIHILATION

TO DO OR NOT TO DO SELF-ANNIHILATION

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago


Fate could be embezzler and crook
If bribed it could be
‘Tis when one cuts his/her throat and snuffs
Out life as one cold stone.
Yet fate and life are holy lovers
Self, the blinding love
Inane would be the earth’s own twirling be
If this code wasn’t found.

This itch to knife the body, like
Fly that scans excrement
Will flee when reason for it shies away
When swatters swarm the heaps
That is when one has bridged the self
To the crafting of the world anew
Behold! The diadems in people’s hearts!
Await everyone’s countenance
Like cornfields that a day shan’t miss
Without showers gently sent
By pious clouds from heaven’s floors
Undone is the sizzling heat
And then no more will knifing the body
Ever cross the willful mind.

[Writ. 27 May 91, Cubao, Quezon City, M.Manila]