Sa Puro Kan Ulok / At The Tip Of A Smile Poem by Jaime Jesus Borlagdan

Hagad kan kinaban
sa ngaran kan pakisaro
na ako makitinuhan
sa kagabsan.

Sa pagsirang, pagsulnop kan aldaw
sa pagtindog, pagrumpag kan antenang halangkaw
sa nasabat, nasulbod na kamidbid
sa waltak na dahon
nalihisan, nasilaod kan sigid
minatino ako, minangirit.

Sa puro ugaring kan ulok
may duon na minasabloy
arog kan sarong magabaton na kahaputan
paokod kan sarong ribong taon
luya na dai uminagi sa kapagalan
hiling sa sarong kahewasan,
sa sarong gadan na linya
minasulit an kinidit na ngimot buda panga
sa pag-atubang sa puro
kaining panggang na kaawagan
sa irarom ko an buot
gugom na minagabot
ki matunukon na awot.

Marso 31,2005 Pawa

English:

The world asks
in the name of harmony
that I greet and make peace
with the many.

To the rising, and setting of the sun
to the raising, and tearing down of a towering antenna,
to the familiar face, encountered, and missed
to the fallen leaf
passed over, and caught by the hard broom
I greet, and smile.

Yet at the tip of the smile
there is a weight that hangs
like a heavy question
riddle of one puzzled age
weakness which skipped exhaustion
a look at a vastness,
to one dead line
the smile strained by the mouth and jaw retracts
in facing the end
of this barren clearing
beneath me, feeling
pulls out, clenching
a thorny weed.