Leah of the Loving Land

You could be all for us, the all

Of heaven and earth and

That joy in between, the one you

Have when you smell the roses,

The one that fills your lungs

With the power of the salty breeze.



In this late light, I see you

From the clear window of my soul.

You sing a lullabye to Nasudi the last child

Of our separateness, another sign

Of all the all-color hopes we claim

As we light in ritual the candles

On the garden I had tended

In the present perfect tenses

Of love and memory I left behind.



I remember the coconut tree

I planted with lines of some poems

I wrote for Ayi and Camille some years

Ago when the earth on our home was red

And our dreams were brilliant blues,

The blues of the vast horizon giving us

Clues to singular self-sacrifice and salvation.



The tree has given us luck,

Lots of them, with children giving us

The rhythm of the hills savoring

The swaying of its lush leaves.

The nuts are still golden, like

Our prayers and promises,

The ones that we hold dear

And that we rewrite each year?



I try to drink from the cup

Of our coming together soon.

I try to live from the psalmic songs

Of our daily red redemption.

I know: from afar, beyond

The million moons on the loving land,

Faithful vessel to our vision,

I come closer. closer to getting hold

Of you each second, every second.





Aurelio S. Agcaoili

Torrance, CA, USA

Nov. 10, 2004





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