While Guio Slept

Written by: Mark Francis G. Ng
Note: Another poem which is part of the Guio compilation

***

One silent night ‘neath the perfect starlit sky, Guio and I talked
In the meadow-like garden where we would usually take a walk
We sat beside each other, like how trusted friends often do
Whenever one would feel lonely or know not what to do.

He told me his sorrows, his doubts, and his pains
All those things he told me so and poured out like the rain
He had questions within himself, things he didn’t have an answer to
Things that were utterly ironic, paradoxical but true.

The words that he spoke were of weaved melancholy
That even his deepest longings and yearnings I could somehow feel truly
I listened to him, eagerly heeded every word he told
As the things he for so long kept hidden slowly to me did unfold.

He told me he wanted to cry, but would oft stop his tears
Each time he felt unneeded, unloved, and thwarted by his fears
No matter how he smiled, the sadness inside him he still finds hard to contain
Amidst the pretense of elation, inside him were his concealed and clandestine pain.

He wanted to face those things like a man, full of ardent vigor and might
But deep inside, he told me, he’s still but a child who in his weakness could not yet fight
He wanted to play with his toys, wanted to roam the world with utmost glee
And to his own little world, the haven he made for himself, he always wanted to flee.

As he told me these words, I somehow realized and did comprehend
That to vulnerability even great men also do bend
In a plethora of instances, my likeness to Guio I have always proven true
Like how the dawn and dusk seem to create colors of perfect shade and hue.

I held Guio’s hands in mine, and looked him as he wept
I told him words that since then I have always to myself kept
“Know that you are loved, that alone you are not at all
A kindred is here to guide you, to pick you up each time you fall.”

As the birds momentarily ceased singing their songs, a certain silence seemed to abound
As Guio and I conversed, a solace in each other we have found
One that made us close to each other even from the very start
A nexus that somehow linked our thoughts, our minds, and our hearts.

Like a small and innocent child on my lap Guio laid
As we both gazed at the stars and wondered how their radiance never seemed to fade
Close your eyes, Guio, try to set your wearies to oblivion
And in your dreams do weave for yourself a clear and unmarred new vision.

While Guio slept, marveling at his pure virtuousness, I cried
And in awe I wondered in silence how innocence could be so undauntedly personified
Each time I looked in his eyes, I’ve always found someone which in my past I have not seen
The childhood I thought I never had, and the child I thought I have never been.


March 1, 2007
Thursday
10:00 p.m.