two poems

by CESAR RUIZ AQUINO

published in the May 10, 2008 issue

of the Philippine Free Press

_________________________



HAIKOLORS

I'm dreaming of a
White singkamas. I'm dreaming
Of Chocolate Hills.

I'm singing the blues.
Blue moon, blue movie. Verde
Te quiero verde.

Red I stop. Yellow
She is the River of Ten
Thousand Orange Steps.

She can turn day gray,
Night blacker. But her secret
Of secrets is pink.

.

THE CAMELEPHANT
(Reply to Voltaire)

Yes, brother,
Egyptian image
& Hindu
sage
knew
each other,
ate & slept
under
one roof.
Alas! God swept
away the proof
the moment
it existed -
the camelephant.

God was wroth
or flabbergasted
when both
wrote
for the same girl,
as if from a single
starry
eye,
the same pearl
of great price
poem, twice
born,
signed
between the lines.

The 3rd or hundredth
hierophant
before Shah Jahan
was
shall see the Taj
on fire
& hear it, heart & I

broken by her passing

pyre amid
the pyramids
on Mt. Age
under Sarah
Zipporah
north of the Unicorn

On any God-forgiven
bright night
the universe
travels
full-circle
on foot,
italics mine,
the line
is a dig at free verse
unless written
w/ constellations
at stake,
a take
on the infinite.

.

.