One Heart, Two Lives

O, Pearl of the Orient! The island Of the islands in the Far East--- How nostalgic The humming wind and the sea, the sunset And the mountains, the rice fields and the people The Boleros and the Jeepneys Don’t you worry, Inay, your beauty Is still within me O, Athena! The babysitter Of my lonely soul I tiptoed, like a fog, into your beloved fortress And sit on the ruins Of your pasts, daydreaming I, the poet, crowned with rhyme and verse And well-adorned, with pearled barong From the islands of the sea