Make Me The Liquid By Your Vase

By Nina Estrada Puyat Prometheus Unbound

I
Make me the liquid by your vase contained By Ruben Cuevas
Make me the clay that you would shape and mould.
Make me the puppet by your wish ordained,
The shadow and reflection of your world.
Make me the memory of your smile when this
Mars shall glow tonight,
Is fled. The glimmer of your tear before
They fall. The sigh suspended from a kiss
Artemis is out of sight.
Conceived and born in your heart's inmost core.
Let me be the music that your fingers play.
Rust in the twilight sky
The instrument beneath your singing hands.
The echo of your voice, the midnight of your day,
Colors a bloodshot eye,
The eddy following your soul's respnse.
For, Love, I would be paint beneath your brush:
Or shall I say that dust
Distinct and yet united, we two at last.

Sunders the sleep of just?

LII
I shall not yield although he storms my castle.
I shall not kiss him back although I tear
My heart. I shall note let sound of his pestle
Pounding at my soul break through the mask I wear, Hold fast to the gift of fire!
Betray the frigid treachery I dare.
I shall not let his seeking hands caress me. I am rage! I am wrath! I am ire!
He shall not touch this jet-black hair that is mine.
He shall not see the prayer of eyes misty The vulture sits on my rock,
With hunger, beggared yet unpleading, nor find
The initiated breasts' pubescent line. Licks at the chains that mock
The moon will set, but he and I will never
Know each other. Chained to a vow once made, Emancipations breath,
In numb despair I shall deny him answer
And turn away: virtuous, pure and . . . dead. Reeks of death, death, death.

LIV
On one another yet we shall in time
Set eyes, and I my sweet revenge shall gain, Death shall not unclench me.
For muffled tears that fell like prayer rain
To still the clamor of a bell that chimed I am earth, wind and sea!
Relentlessly within my haunted mind.
For all the humiliated shame that died Kisses bestow on the brave
Over my love so ruthlessly denied
By your unfaithful heart of stone, I'll find That defy the damp of grave
A brand to sear your memory, a way
To torture you again with sighs of lips And strike the chill hand of
You well remember and of breasts and hips
Whose feel you knew but lost. I only pray Death with the flaming sword of love.
The vengeance that upon your soul I lay
Will not redound and break this heart of clay.

Footnote to Youth

By Jose Garcia Villa

The story started where, Dodong, a 17 years old boy, is impatiently waiting for his father to
return home so that he can tell him of his love for Teang and his desire to marry her. He
feels that at 17 he is a grown man and is ready for the next important step in his life.When
he tells his father that he has asked Teang to marry him and wants his blessing, there is a
long and cruel silence.

His father asks him "must you marry her" because his father thinks Dodong is very young
but Dudong resents his father's question, and finally his father gives his consent.

Nine months later, Dodong is waiting outside their house while Teang gives birth to their first
son, Blas. He feels young and inexperienced, a contrast to how he felt nine months
ago.Dodong did not want any more children, for he was thinking, how hard it is to be a
young father, he was even ashamed for his early paternity that he can't look into his parents
eyes. For the next six years, Teang gave birth to six more child. Seven children in all.Teang
did not complain. However her body was now shapeless and thin from bearing so many
children and from the hard work of caring for them and the household.

Even though she loved Dodong, she cried and wished that she had not married so young.
There had been another suitor, Lucio, who was nine years older than Dodong. But she chose
Dodong because he was so much younger. Lucio had married after she married Dodong,
however, he was childless. She wonders if she had married Lucio, would she be childless?
She feels that would have been a better lot in life. But she loves Dodong, even though life
has made him old and ugly.

One night Dodong goes outside and thinks about his life. He wants to have the wisdom to
know why life does not fulfill Youth's dreams. Why did life forsake you after love? He never
finds the answer.Maybe the question was not to be answered. It must be so to make Youth
dreamfully sweet. Dodong returned to the house humiliated by himself. He had wanted to
know a little wisdom but was denied it.

When Blas turns 18, he comes home and tells Dodong that he wants to marry Tena. Dodong
at this time is only 36 years old, but he is portrayed as a much older man. Dudong does not
want Blas to marry so young. He asks the same question his father asked him. Does Blas
have to marry Tena? He does not want him to make the same mistake he did. Blas also
reacts with resentment.
Dodong realizes that Blas was taking his footsteps many years ago, he also realizes that he
is dealing with Youth and Love, and they will triumph over this situation. After that, comes
real life. But like what his father did,Dodong did not object, but tried to make Blas think
twice before rushing to marriage - because Dodong doesn't want Blas to end up like him. He
gives his consent feeling sad and sorry for his son.