Harvest Moon

... harvest moon*

the sea is placid tonight
iligan bay lies still as lake lanao at noon
and i in my airy room lay disturbed sleepless
longing for the absent february moon

ahh that magical moonlight
of a romance-filled night
when hearts were young
and troth was sprung
of pristine love
unmindful of
the twists of fate
the lashings of hate
that would separate
the moneyed you
from impoverished me
on later years of
our warped destiny.

o harvest moon
you and the talisay tree
down by that pebbled shore
bore witness to inchoate consummation
of first time hearts becoming one.

and i never knew never saw
the replica of me and you
imprint on a flesh that has grown
some thirty distant suns ago.

the sea is calm tonight
and as i lay me down on this hovel by the bay
i will hoard again my tearless aches
and think of you and my namesake a thousand miles away
beloved...


* [contributed by a guest poet and a friend: filoteo mendaza aguillon]