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In the corner of an almost lost mural

The painter creates the poet.

In grand gesture and translucent colors,

“Balagtas!” Botong (probably) exclaims

Under his breath, himself quite surprised

As the poet takes shape, as he

Savors or limns fugitive racial memory

In the tongue, slipping past cuartel

And guardia civil, as he draws an arc

Like God, towards Malakas and Maganda,

At the flick and daub of pinsel

Of squirrel or camel hair, squeezing

Figment from pigment, conjuring

Sinew and tissue from segment of bamboo.

His arms are his arms, his colors are his

Verses. He gives him the face of Lapu-Lapu

(Another rib from his side, another shade

From his palette): muscular, strong-chinned,

Tight-jawed. How we want our race to look

And how we’ve forgotten it. He gives him

His anguish and his tenderness.

The poet creases his brow, touches his

Temple and grips his pluma as he writes

The Florante at Laura, allotting his breath

In twelve syllables, carefully marking caesura:

Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong sawi,

As the ghosts of Albania swirl around him,

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Strewing strophes and antistrophes,

Stanzas and alexandrines, weaving

Romance and revolution in trope,

Tayutay and code—the code of freedom

And humanity that will poison the minds

Of Hermano Pule and Gomburza,

Paciano, Marcelo, Graciano, Juan, Jose,

Andres, Emilio, Antonio, Macario,

Until all of them are rewritten into

Scoundrel, recalcitrant, cimarron, bandido,

Under the new code of Manifest Destiny.

The painter tries to retrieve the code

From the petroglyphs of San Mateo,

But instead he is enchanted by shades and

Hues—Thus his murals are epic, his epics

Murals. But now because of our ignorance

And neglect, they rot at City Hall or are stained

With beer in some bar for journalists.

Or finally restored with tender hands and

Enshrined at the Museum of the Filipino.

Entranced guest, code-addict, the poet is smitten

All over again by the Code, and in drunken

Haze re-creates the painter in his words.

 

Marne Kilates

(24 May 2009; 16n April 2011; Rev. 16 February 2018)

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Botong Paints Balagtas

JOINING the celebrations of the National Arts Month (February 2018) and the restoration and installation of the Carlos Botong Francisco masterpiece, Filipino Struggles Through History, at the National Museum of Fine Arts. BOTTOM: The Mural newly installed at the National Museum.

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