A POEM FOR LEONARD CO

ON A CHANCE ENCOUNTER* WITH A FRIEND:

A POEM FOR LEONARD CO

-  Nonilon Q. Queano

     “LEONARD CO’S life (which lasted a few weeks short of 57 years)

was much too brief, but it was a life that overflowed with professional

 accomplishments and friendships.

     Friends are ephemeral, ships passing by in the night as the saying goes.

Leonard built friendships that spanned the years.”

                          - Michael Tan, “Pinoy Kasi, Leonard Co,”

                           Philippine Daily Inquirer, 12/01/2010.

I would have thought I knew

Bright days from dreary dark

And seen red dawns

Breaking but clearly

Upon forests and greening trees;

I would have thought

There always would be singing,

Even from voids of blue

Though roads creep out

As chance meetings come and go.

It was even perhaps with bravado

That I regarded contradictions

And struggles, inevitable

Oh I could project them all

Confidently,

With the palmate light of wisdom,

Until it happened.

We met in a crowded mall

(Of all places),

I tagged him on the shoulder

As he walked past,

 Instantly, he beamed,

His chinky eyes cusped behind glasses

(I had always looked at him amusedly,

Like I would at some strange soul

I’d meet every now and then)

We hardly talked but connected

As old friends who knew so little of each other,

Briefly, sealed our friendships in some half-hug,

At parting,

Then walked our separate ways so nonchalantly

I had not even had time to think

How long  it would take us to meet again.

But it was quick

A few days, his bullet riddled body was splashed

On the front page of the dailies,

With the story of how soldiers

Allegedly mistook him for an NPA rebel,

Shot him then and there.

The look of horror drawn on his face,

His arms covering up as he begged for mercy.

Leonard Co, the much- respected, much-loved

Lead botanist in the country,

The great scientist taxonomist who discovered

Rafflesia leonardi, the plant that bore his name.

Leonard Co, the poet-friend I hardly knew.

What arrogance had I to believe that I understood fully:

That I could explain the contradictions in capitalism,

The struggle against imperialist plunder,

Life and death and the romance of split selves,

The sun, the moon, greenfields, forests, and mountains;

Yet through it all, hard put to making out

The idiocy of the band of killer soliders

Who murdered my poor friend.

And I had not even time to think

Of when or if ever we would meet again.

*Three or four days before the murder of Leonard Co, I bumped into him at SM North Mall on that heavily congested narrow corridor bridge between D’Block and the old, main building.