Thursday, March 20, 2008

Haikus In Tagalog










Sa HardinSang paruparo
Pumagaspas sa rosas
Sakit ng tinik



PalakaMga palaka
Sa tubig nagtampisaw
Kumabog ang n’yog


PansamantalaNamatyagan ko
Alindog ng ‘yong mata
Takipsilim na


Ang Pagdating
Nagmamadali
Hangad makadating ka’gad
Hintay lang mahal


AlaalaHaplos ni ina
Dampi ng halik sa’kin
Amoy bulaklak

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Haikus









MorningFierce light pierces through
The morning haze and green blur
Your yawn woke me up

AdieuColored prints of you
Arrayed on doilied cover
Sonic boom explodes

Disorder
A pool of water
Is stirred by a maya bird
A gunshot resounds

Holy Week
Suntanned revelers
Frolic in raucous delight
Jesus impaled sweats

StruggleHigh atop a hill
The world looks bright and cheerful
Worms creep up to see

TwilightShrilling cries like drills
Cicada’s dirge close the day
Light sinks with the sun

Hope

I saw her today,
Aloof but with a coy smile
Now my cellphone rings

GrandsonsDustin and David,
Mischievous apos both ten
Oops! A Ming vase breaks

Slot MachineIcons tumbling spin,
Flashing light and ringing bells
Sadly I drove home

The WakeFunereal fragrance wafts,
Midst earnest sobs and clasped hands
Snuffed candle falls

Expectant
Tired eyes squint in wait,
Faint sounds make feeble ears stand
Youthful yells break out

Monday, March 17, 2008

Loss













Fragile feathers sway the high wire
Burnt wings strewn on a violent swirl

Plaintive chirp intones a dirge
Trilling against the hectoring din

Flapping frantic homeward wings
Dodging flak of the sooty haze

I should have cared a bit, a lot
For morn to find him on my window sill

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Saturday Morning


















My mind ambled in strange arbors
How faint my heart feels
Here she comes across the trellised walk
Afraid my beloved Circe will glare
Beneath the bowers there’s no place to hide
The yellow bells are too weak to help
I will have to face without looking her in the eye
For discomfited countenance and limpid eyes betray
I have erred but not too much I think
Run away, I could be braver some other day

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Spare the Children


Alleluia! a star is seen again in the east
Ladies in off-white hoods and tonsured shepherds
Flock to see such heavenly sport
Our champion is here, the long nights of waiting done

Stow away the loin cloths in your closets
Rejoice for answers to orisons now dawning
Scourge the unbeliever, let no one deny our hero
He has to be, for it is written, don’t you think?

Sound the trumpets and beat gay tambourines
Clash the cymbals to deafen the doubting mass
Herd the innocent as witness to convince self and many
Mindless of the Master’s lesson not to lead them astray

“Unless you become like children…” now reversed
Children are led to serve obsessed truths of jaded men
Alas, if superman sheds off his camouflage cape
The guiltless now betrayed, will purity be restored?

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Chiaroscuro
















Shadows now cast east
With somber grays quaking in the grass
It seems only a while t’ was noon
And the sun shone bright
Without the specter of the dark

Shadows in the east declare
That day so soon expire
Look west and pine
For loves and fortunes in youth
Yours then, now just a nurtured pain

The Wind









The wind told me you’re leaving today
With voice so harsh it laid trees bare
The wind told me you’re leaving today
Hissed through the vines its ill tidings

You can’t leave today my love
Not when the bougainvilleas are in frolic
You can’t leave today my love
Not when the orchids are in a festive glee

Even in the morrow you cannot go
For the fruits will be in harvest then
Even in the morrow you cannot go
For the arid sod awaits your benediction

The wind told me you’re leaving today
Absurd! I said to this malignant tale
The wind told me you’re leaving today
Ill wind begone… was my incensed cry

The Scent of Onions

















Behold an onion out from a hat
Was eager to be put in a pot
It is the only one said the chef
And the dish will not be good without

It was an ungainly sight to see
Skin so dried and dirty splotches wrap
This will do cried the kitchen staff
After a wash and ugly layers peeled

Its humble bulbous shape
Seemed innocuous at first sight
But each layer peeled spewed bile
And pungent rot reeked out

The dirty layer peeled
Gave sight to more dirt inside
And they peeled on with hope
That no more dirt be found

So eager to get the dish begin
With cheers from all
Peeled on til putrid essence squirt
Everyone with unfelt tears did shed

Peel off the dirt they said
But each layer found dirt anew
Now wafted redolence pervade
But still they cheered

We need an onion no matter what
The one we have looked good despite
But dubious ones are better than none
So there the need has been satisfied

Heroes and onions are hard to find
Once one is found we lionize without delay
Feet of clay and checkered past ignored
Oh Baal you have mesmerized us anew