Agnetha

Beneath Agnetha's forlorn face, you can still see
The traces of the things that she had been through --
Chasing rainbows that weren't there,
Dreams that turned into gruesome nightmares

She once had been caught, you see
In the shameless confusion that is the dark world
Of the pill-popping inebriated lost people, trying to find
Solace in the magical promise that never was.

For years and years she roamed
Into the underworld of the dark unknown
Many times, she could feel in her skin
The impending doom that is just lurking within.

Then in her wailing despair, she found him
Who took her aging hand and guided her
To take the golden steps into the long march
To the path of quiet awakening from her sonorous slumber.

At times, she admits that she could still hear those familiar voices in her ears
And her tongue still misses the taste of those orange pills.
But she's home now in his arms, wrapped in comforts
Finding the peace that she could never ever find anywhere.

You could see it in her brown eyes that she's now a different kind
She could now talk about her life and her spiritual journey with utmost certainty
In the shade of the trees, boldly towering in her mother's garden
She made a pledge amid the stargazers' beguiling presence
Vowing that she will never be the same, a hollow person again.

#
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ YOU/ July 31, 2004

Truth or Dare

Words have no meaning
Coming from your mouth that spews nothing but fire
I have learned to take them on the cheek
And turn a deaf ear and shrug a cold shoulder.
I am not blind you know?
I just learned how to cope without my colored glasses on
I don't know where exactly it all began
But I know that it was not so long ago
When I was bewitched by your uncanny charm
And fell into a spell that I thought I would never recover
But I was wrong my dear and so are you
And that is something that you should know
I am better without you though not that great you know
But I am coming to terms with my life now
And one thing is sure though,
When I finally get my bearings again
You will not be there.
#
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ YOU/ July 2004

May Jane

I picked you up in the garden,
One bright May morning.
I inhaled and smelled your fragrance
Soothing and calming my restless being.

I have watched your beauty
As it faded and wilted into
The heat of my sweaty palms
Crushing my illusions
Breaking my fragile heart
Into a thousand bits and pieces.

A requiem for the dead.

#
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ YOU/ May 2004

Sand man

I leave my heart in the sand
Where the waves
Can wash away
My misery.

Ever since you went away
My mind is in a
state of disarray.

I know that
I should never have
Loved you.

But what can I really do?

Someday
You will understand
Why I buried my heart
In the sand.
#

Phillipine Daily Inquirer/ YOU/ March 2004

Emotional Circle

Laughing out loud
crying in silence
Repressed emotions
trying hard not to cause
a commotion...

Tears in your eyes
Pain in my heart
Nerves of steel
pretending nothing
is real...

Dying hopes
Wasted ambitions
Losing one's soul
in the whirlwind
of corroded
minds of
the people of the lie.

A sure ticket
to eternal
damnation.

#
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ YOU Section/ January 2004

Architectural Plays

Schematic diagrams of damned souls
In uncharted sea of passion
Blue prints of seduction
Lost in the blue horizon

Silly thoughts, crazy ideas
Simple notions, moronic solutions
To the simple questions.

Building relationships
From the dust of creation
Is a simple excuse to damnation?

Bodies carved in stone
Saturated in oil of secretions
Making plans for the big summation

Graphic emotions, linear equation
Caught in a web of painless expression
Collapsing in the heat of spontaneous combustion.

#
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ YOU Section/ January 2004