Almost Famous
[A backhanded tribute to the Dumaguete poet Cesar Ruiz Aquino, eccentric teacher and friend]

 

the kid is neo-koans,
he’s far from a goat
neither is he a poem,
he doesn’t wear coats

he’s a rain man,
he’s more a picaro:
the man w/o a woman
he’s both semiotic/cosmo

but that’s simplifying
the man, the man is
an animal, he sings
of puzzles, and dis-

traught never by gold,
the kid’s a religion
he believes in the old
magic of one Surgeon.

that’s because earth
fascinates him as sun,
mad not mad, his mirth
a journey for journeymen.

the kid is old, white-
haired stallion, thin,
agile, he dreams sights:
generic Woman, sin.

it’s not as though he’s cryin’.
that all subjects are fleetin’.

some writers think him fey,
these earthlings got bulls’ eyes!

let’s get back to quat-
        rains,
but it’s best you meet
        the colt,
to sing of him is vain
he’s the 4th meaning of
        mole*.

But let’s attempt a
        praise,
as we’ve nothing more
        to do.
Cesar was my teacher,
he taught us how to
        look.

A story makes things
        narrow,
a story’s not a book.
A day’s not for tomorrows.
A book is in a nook.

The last thing that I
        learned,
it was from him: Cesar.
Never tell a girl that
you were once a hawser.

Caesar, buzzard,
mincer, gizzard,
Dumaguete rumors,
Cesar is a buzzword!

But nobody can know
the book not in the book.

 

—31 Aug./92

——————————————

*—n. Pathol. A morbid mass
formed in the womb by the
degeneration of the partly
developed ovum, and giving
rise to false pregnancy.

(Webster Comprehensive Dictionary, Int. Edition, c. 1976-87 by J.C. Ferguson Publishing Co., Chicago)

 

 

 

Copyright © 1999, 2004 Vicente-Ignacio Soria de Veyra. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to view, save, file and print out single copies of this webpage for their personal use. No reproduction, display, performance, multiple copy, transmission, or distribution of the work herein, or any excerpt, adaptation, abridgment or translation of same, may be made without written permission from the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this work will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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