FOR MARLON
By Bob Peralta

Today as you embrace the earth
From which all of us came,
I think of the stars,
And the moons and galaxies
And the universe,
I think of heaven. 

For they match the energy
With which you lived
Life on earth, the synergy
Of cosmoses in your flip
Of bicycle handle, the sway
Of meteor showers in your dance,
The power of black holes
In your haunch of shoulders
To emphasize a point
And make it come alive like mantra,
As when Indians danced their stories
In the night sky of a dessert field. 

(Or high school students crossing the airport at dusk to gallivant in your apartment)

You were pure energy that no Gary Valenciano nor Michael Jackson could match, for you danced not on stage, you danced life;
Not only with motion, but with the movement of stories
That still ring in my ears
As though we were still,
First year. 

When I rode behind you in your bike,
When we climbed trees, when we
Went camping soaked by the rain
Till daylight. 
When we went out nights
That stretched till the gold sunrises
Of foamy golden mornings,
Songs and stories still
fresh as fresh morning air...
In my mind. 

For you have joined the asteroids and novae, quasars and stardusts, in the seamless symmetry of the Almighty's boundless energy 
(Sterling starlight that would dwarf the Ms. Earth candidates you so proudly posted on Facebook.)

And the memory of you would never, ever be- nebula. 
Go forth my dear friend, on that bike, and roam... eternity!

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(I am sad that I cannot be there for Marlon as we say goodbye to him. 
So I just wrote a goodbye poem for him instead and which I request Myrna to read to him).
-Bob