Little Filipina (3 Sonnets) Poem by mike ruthenbeck

If I were to die on this very night
In some ill-fated turn of misfortune
I would want for it to be known forthright
that there is nothing I would have undone.
No, there is nothing; I’d not change a thing
But then again, I never remember
The difference between romance and a fling-
-both sorts of fire grow from an ember…
For, average man that I am, I can feel
The embers burning in any heart near.
The heart, auto-matic auto-mobile,
Traversing the modern social frontier
Of glossy eyes and throw-away cultures.
The electric engineered souvenirs
Supplied by swooping circles of vultures,
Share photographs of the time we have spent-
Pictures of changes yet underwent.




This aimless vignette elicits regret
From my hand, as the pen dashes the page
Still, I remember my love with cold sweat,
Staged to engage before coming of age
For naught! “If I knew then what I know now…”
Adventure, travel; who could desist?
She loved me more than my heart would allow,
Her eyes, her soul, I could never resist;
Now, in her eyes, I have cease’d to exist.
To me, she is no more than a Christmas
Shade, a splendid dream on which I subsist
Cut off! as an island from an isthmus.
Surrounded, here, by nautical miles
Am I; slowly drifting further to sea.
Surrounded, here, by infinite styles
Of islands and isthmus swept with debris.
Throw-away culture chances romances
In hopes of forcing glossy eyed glances.





Do you stare? I do. I see everyone
Watching each other, pretending not to.
Top button undone, trying to be fun,
I hate acting like I know what to do
When everything happens out of the blue.
I say hello, she just bids me adieu;
I ask where she’s from, she says “Timbuktu! ”
But she’s hot, and I still want to pursue.
Be funny, and smart, and buy her a drink,
Chew gum to make sure my breath doesn’t stink;
Or be a tool, and just say what I think
And give her friends a mischievous wink…
the romantic today seems out of luck,
people cheat and lie and go go go.
It is the human condition to _____,
cause baby, it's human; quid pro quo.