1
(From here to eternity)
Their embrace in Mantua has lasted five thousand years & archaeologists are amazed how their bones could stay hidden in the crypt of shifting stones – Maybe, young & full of Varona’s passion to have made such fatal & final covenant. But, was it love that brought them together & having sworn in the name of the infinite, they could not have enough of each other & chose to perish in a manner folklorists would deem the heart’s mission in this age where love is almost always false & impossible? Was it misfortune that drove them into each other’s arms & in fear & panic locked themselves in an embrace a million times longer than their lives? This neolithic lovers have spawned so many cautionary tales we find ourselves perplexed & speechless: How fantasies we recount & cherish as proof that love is forever & real release us from our prison house of futile hope & unimganibale despair.
2
(Love is a many splendored thing)
The morning breeze scatters
the diamond glitter of the sun:
He couldn’t have enough of her,
she probably of him.
Being young, the earth
moves faster than their dreams.
Noon brings out the wine & cheese
& cruel lines on their faces.
Their hearts beat slower.
Their bodies wrapped
in the shadow of a dead star.
Shards of laughter litter the floor.
Then, “Suddenly, it is evening.”
3
(Got to believe in magic)
But only this,
this moment,
this here,
this now,
this company,
this wine,
these kisses
& the sweet, sweet scent
of sweat & tears
that make the bodies soft,
tangible, real –
only this
& the word
that doesn’t speak the truth
only the music of its saying –
Yes, this moment
that tells only
all possible moments
in a future
that will never be.
So lovers should live only
for this, this here, this now,
this company, this wine,
these kisses.
Tomorrow is full
of trickery.
4
(Trying to get the feeling again)
To be young & in love
on this crimson day
when lovers exchange roses, of course,
& kisses to act out a courtly rite
that they exist only for each other
& the devil can’t interfere
where cherubs giddily stir.
That’s all there is to it:
A hemlock they must drink
if only for the world to beware
that evil won’t dare tread
where blind hearts meet.
“Damn the torpedoes,
full speed ahead.”
O love exists!
This crazy gambit
if life is really pure hell, pure shit.
5
(Valley of the dolls)
Anna Nicole Smith, 39,
media celebrity & Playboy playmate,
died at a Florida Hotel,
& the curious felt curiouser
of the strange circumstances:
Heiress she was to a contested fortune
from a dying billionaire
who professed that he loved her dearly –
Something everybody thought
was scandalous for one so young & lovely
& one so old & wanton.
But the heart, cycnics say,
works in mysterious ways…
She pulled herself up
by her own bootstraps
& the trail of flashbulbs & grief
hadn’t left her since.
Do not speak then of love
when you marry into the filthy rich…
But O how she loved badly,
how she loved tortuosly.
6
(Staying alive)
Of course, wind & rain
can be clinically explained
in a mathematical equation –
But this labyrinth
keeps changing direction
& no architect can map out
the algorithm of winding passion –
Where lies the center?
Where lie the exit & opening?
How did it all begin?
The rule of love has a logic
all its own:
We can only celebrate
the wild leap of the heart
with the patience of Job
& mourn
the slow waning of the pulse
with the wisdom of Solomon.
7
(Just a love song)
“Ingat,” she says softly.
Before closing the door behind her.
“Ikaw rin,” he says softly
holding his heart
bleeding in his hands.
Always, always
the wind icily whistling.
