Ariel Kurt Yuan Duldulao

Most Adored Possession

Why turn from me thus with such petulant pride,
When I ask you, sweet Aira, to be my bride;
When I offer the gift of heart fond and true,
And with loyalty seek thy young love to woo?
With patience I’ve waited from week unto week,
And at length I must openly, candidly speak.

But why dost thou watch me in doubting surprise,

Why thus dost thou raise thy dark, deep, melting eyes?
Can’t thou wonder I love you, when for the last year
We have whispered and flirted told each hope and fear;
When I’ve lavished on you presents costly and gay,
And kissed thy fair hands at least six times each day?

What! Do I hear right? So those long sunny hours

Spent wand’ring in woods or whispering in bowers,
Our love-making ardent in prose and in rhyme,
Was just only a method of passing the time!
A harmless flirtation the fashion just now,
To be closed, by a smile, or a jest, or a bow!

Ah, believe me, fair Aira, with me ’twas not so,

And I would I had known this but six months ago;
I would not have wasted on false, luring smiles,
On graces coquettish and cold, studied wiles,
True love that would give you a life for thy life,
And guarded and prized you, a fond, worshipped wife.

Oh I thou’rt pleased now to whisper my manners are good,

And my smiles such as maiden’s heart rarely withstood,
My age just the thing nor too young nor too old
My character faultless, naught lacking but gold,
And to-day might I claim even thy beauty so rare
If good Uncle John would but make me his heir.

Many thanks, my best Aira! I now understand

For what thou art willing, to barter thy hand:
A palace-like mansion with front of brown stone,
In some splendid quarter to fashion well known,
Sèvres china, conservatory, furniture rare,
Unlimited pin-money, phaeton and pair.
It is well, gentle lady! The price is not high
With a figure like thine, such a hand, such an eye,
Most brilliant accomplishments, statuesque face,
Manners, carriage distingué and queenlike in grace,
Nothing wanting whatever, save only a heart,
But, instead, double portions of cunning and art.

Ah! well for me, lady, I have learned in good time

To save myself misery you, sordid crime.
I will garner the love that so lately was thine
For one who can give me a love true as mine;
But learn ere we part, Aira, peerless and fair,
Uncle Josh has just died and has left me his heir!
Ariel Kurt Yuan B. Duldulao

Little by little
I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:

if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.