"The Invalid Looks Toward The Window" by Angela Manalang Gloria

Lord, it is hard to have to lie
Coffined in this monotony
Of four straight walls that bar me
The comradeship of earth and sky:

I know that just beyond this room
Day spreads a shawl of green and gold,
And flaunts at me one broidered fold
Through yonder window laced with bloom;

And winds must stay their eager flight
To thrust [to?] my peace their tales
Of things I love, what golden trails
My feet have known, what blue my sight

Once caught. But I, now freedom-shorn
And tucked within geometric space,
Can only turn a bitter face
From so much mockery and scorn

31 May 1930

Source: Manlapaz, Edna Zapanta, ed. The Complete Poems of Angela Manalang Gloria. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila UP, 1993. 64