a serenade

as i begin to strum
the strings that is your skin
of this guitar that is your being

i slowly close my eyelids
for this solitary serenade
building up in the darkness

my mouth trembling
my tongue waiting for the rhythm
of the song i often sing

and in the hurrying tempo
of my seasoned band
watch me uncase your gleaming microphone

warming in my well-practiced hands
and hear me sing your song
silence in the wildest performance.


31 May 1994
- published by the Philippine Free Press in June 1994

A Flower Story

see your darkness move
behind the pale curtains
in your hidden cove
taste the roundness
of the smoke on his tongue
in your burned lips
hear your soul breathe
as down you slowly slip
to heaven, he said

and touch the flowers in your bed
one by one, smell, caress
capture their essense in your nakedness

for tomorrow gone he will be
while the petals rot
and turn to dust
and you wait for the curtains to sway
and again paint the crazed
craving of your flower spirit.


17 November 1993
- an earlier version of one of my poems published
by the Philippine Free Press in June 1994