Immortal Saul

The Immortal Saul

By Jonathan Aquino

As a young man I labored

in the docks, waiting, like my

boisterous fellow workers

and shrewd native dealers

for the Dutch galleons; silk

East Indies spice and everything nice;

and opportunists abound like flies.

I held her hand as she trembled,

an old woman, a grandmother of five,

as we watched the Spanish armadas arrive.

I claimed her as my wife when she was

a girl of twenty --  but all things pass;

bittersweet memories time has stolen:

her face, her smile, even her name –

now forgotten.

I cannot die

and I don’t know why.

It was Ferdinand Magellan

who first broke my heart --

and I mean  that  literally;

my blood flowed from that Spaniard’s sword

as it pierced my trembling body.

Sometimes I feel Stateside:

I got a thousand American bullets;

but through it all I showed my class

From Pinaglabanan to Arayat to Tirad Pass.

I joined the Commonwealth Literary Contests

but lost to Camilo Osias;

then I got depressed and headed west.

In Manila I got blown away

by a Japanese kamikaze pilot,

but that’s okay,

and good riddance to that idiot.

I sold K-rations during the Liberation;

I was a businessman smuggling Spam –

“Hey Joe, wanna woman?” I was also a pimp, man!

That was when I got my second gonorrhea;

the first time was during the time

Of Limahong, that Kung Fu pirate from China.