Tuesday, February 26, 2013

By the Window Seat


As I pondered by the window seat
I saw three birds foraging to eat
Hopping and fluttering against the gray earth
That man has built to keep out dearth

The three birds flew toward the leaves
Of rubber wires on man-made trees.
Trees that channel not from the sun
But from the heat of coal and sweat of man

As they perched atop, they looked below
And saw nothing worthwhile on the gray meadow
They left for the blue where no man is
For only there can there be bliss

The engine roared and the backseat shook
The scenery flashed; the bus had moved
Two hours along the expressway
Four things to note, one thing to say

Grazing cows pale and thin
Brown pastures smeared with green
Storks flocking on sprinkled marshes
Patches of trees in forests of houses

At last we reached our destination:
The landfill - the sacrifice of man's progression
Where the dirt that was barred from his society
Works yet to fix his broken history

I stepped out and marveled at this great spectacle
Faced the killer of mankind's sentinels
I beheld not a wasteland but a land of waste
Cloistered by mountains dying in haste

Ineffable malodor pervaded the hot wind
As it blew in bursts on this naked trash bin
Alone a dozer masking shame with earth
Piling layers upon layers of trash beneath dearth

Then I returned to the bus for I finally see
The amassed neglects on this brown sea
I sat again by the window seat
And returned to the gray of human feat.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

How Can You Say

How can you say God doesn't care,
When nails were driven through His wrists bared?
How can you say God doesn't see,
When He looked on us with bleeding mercy?

How can you say God doesn't hear,
When at the cross He held us dear?
How can you say God doesn't move,
When He cried to have our sins removed?

How can you say God doesn't feel,
When He was whipped for us with iron and steel?
How can you say God doesn't love,
When Jesus lived to die for love?

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Man with the Broken Piano

Inside the hall shone glimmering lights
Of red and blue and yellow and white
Then came crazy dancing and hard drinking
As I stood alone wondering, gazing

Then behind me grew a shadow of solitude
And rose a tune of a melancholy etude
I fled away, away from the hall
Toward the door, toward a call

I faintly hear behind the hallway
As I stopped to listen near the archway
I hear the call like the humming of a bird
A sound of strings never before heard

I walked a distance toward the woods
To see the musician; give anything I would
Through giant raindrops and withering gale
I hacked through branches, through uncharted trails

Alas, I see the great musician
Beneath the moonlight, like a great magician
With prodigious skill and nimble hands
Waltzing with a piano in this melancholy land

A grand piano with lost grandeur,
With loosed strings, with lost composure
Stood still upon the broken branches
Once more to sing, once more to dance

Whether the trees are swaying to his rhythm
Or to the rocking of trees the piano's singing
I do not know and need not bother
As I stood breathless to listen and wonder

The full concierto of a broken piano
With birds of violins and crickets of cellos
With the drums of downpour and of thundering base
At last came to a pianissimo, at last to fade

Clouds overshadowed, like curtains closing
At the cue of the final tone that stood out echoing
A singular tone not quite the middle C
Silenced the woods and stopped the trees

Then the musician stood and turned to see
His only audience turning to flee
I fled the same path I had gone
I went to the hall, but the hall was gone

Behind me stood the great pianist
His silhouette unveiling, yet my sight is fading
For the night is over and the dawn has come
In my ear a new anthem, in my heart a new freedom

Monday, August 27, 2012

Keep Distance

Keep distance
Too close and we'll crash
Too far and we'll fall apart

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Kahapon Lang

Kailan mo huling namasdan
Ang tutubing dumadapo
Sa munting damong luntian?

Kailan mo huling naamoy
Halimuyak ng bulaklak
At basang lupang sumimoy?

Kailan mo huling nadama
Ihip at lambing ng hangin
Nang walang inaalala?

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Haunt

Cannot sleep at night
Ideas haunt in the dark
Need to write it down

I Love You But I Can't

I will not tell you the beauty
Of the wink of your eye
How it controls me completely
Along with your smile
Nor will I tell you the grace
Of every step of your gait
I will not; I cannot.
I cannot tell you I love you
All because I love you so