Two Tinago Falls poems

Tinago Falls
(Buru-un, Iligan City)


Hidden, like everything beautiful
is this waterfall. In the heart
of this forest, she is here:
cascading gracefully like a lady,
virginal, the lacy drop
a veil covering her face
in myth and mystery.

I have combed her hair,
a leafy crown of emeralds,
to witness her majesty
as she free-falls forever
from the deep ravine of discovery
to the calm, collected waters
in the ice-cold basin
of memory.


Tinago Falls II
(for Ted and King)


clinging to cliffwalls
are the vines of our destinies:
tiny tines, shaped
like fingers, tenaciously
grasping granite rock.

the cascades of our passions
are laced with fear,
dropping whitely, like sheets
of silk, covering
our secrets and desires.

hovering over the azure pool
of our impure delights,
deceitful dragonflies like men
are urging us to swim
in the shimmering skin of sin.