Ecce homo!

our country’s crown of thorns

with his feeble ‘lantern of lies’!

What wondrous, ‘tangled web he weaves’

who has had long practice of the art

of dissimulation and deceit—

from class honors to pontifical doctorate,

until that midnight hour at his high, coveted post

where he heaves his own ‘petard’ upon his head.

O, where is that poor, old caretaker, sir,

whose brain long ago he was to scatter?

Aye, he’s gone, affidavit of his dust

now invulnerable to Supreme Court justice.

And where those shares past bidding at 28 thou?

Sirrah! there’s a force in human nature

stronger even than blood and sugar.

O, what dollar accounts hath he, pray tell?

Vain the prayer! there are laws of secrecy

that sworn oaths cannot open.

May not a conditional waiver gain him

conditional innocence—a little attic of doubt

in the public mind for his private loot?

Shall not a long harangue on verge of tears

secure his office or win him a sinecure?

Aaay! a better mirror, quotha Ben Jonson,

to a man’s true likeness and form is his speech.

Heigh-ho! walk out on fools! by grace perhaps

of the banshee Sycorax at the last hour

and double gobbledygook, he shall be loosed

upon his own desolate strand.

—GEMINO H. ABAD,

university professor emeritus,

Department of English and

Comparative Literature,

University of the Philippines,

Diliman, Quezon City