To Dorothy at 65

On this, your birthday

The first thing, I thought of giving

Is cash for that you might wish,

All 65 grand -- a thousand pesos

For each of the years you’ve lived.

But then, is money all there is to this?

Of how I loved you through all these years?

So, go shall I Shakespeare’s way – ask now:

How do I love thee,

Let me then count the ways:

I love thee for Mikhail Alexis,

For Majalia Krista,

And Iona Katrina.

For Mia Maneekah,

Jonathan Elliott,

And Jordan Immanuel.

I love thee for the good persons

they have turned out to be.  

For their choices of life partners too.

I love thee for Miguel Inigo,

Isabelle Martine,

Stella Marguerithe,

Joaquin Sebastian, and

Gail Amadine.

For, Jin-Kun,

Pio Caesario,

Lyana Beatriz, and

Theo Darius.

Ah, how these the autumn

years, to spring ever turning

at each grandkid’s coming.  

How do I love thee?

So much, so very much

I married you twice,

but in the simplest of rites --

1976, in Iloilo before a judge,   

1978, in Calulut with an entourage of nine including my uncle-priest.

A solemn promise though I kept

to make up for it as we plodded through the years.

That promise delivered –

in grand style, our vows renewed

In 2003 at grand palazzo,

In 2018 at Cana – yes, that very spot

of the first miracle of Christ.

With no honeymoon, but pilgrimage to boot

Sinai, Old Cairo, and the Red Sea

Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem,

Mt. Tabor, Mt. Nebo, the River Jordan, and Petra too.

How my spirit soared, how my very soul was seared,

In these holy places, with you, aye, for you.

If that’s not love,

Pray, tell, what is.

Come down to earth,

How do I love thee?

Not so much with chocolates and roses,

As with a vintage ’66 Volks Beetle called Bitsie,

Thereafter, a 2018 Swift from Suzuki.

How do I love thee?

By leaps and bounds, aye by air –

From Los Angeles and San Francisco

To New York, Philadelphia,

New Jersey, Washington DC.

From Tokyo to Kyoto,

Osaka, to Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo.

How do I love thee?

Counted have I those milestones of life with you

All but the remembered, and the fondest ones,

More, much more – the blissful and the sorrowful –

Deeply set, but felt in the recesses of my heart.

65 years – the spring of youth has passed so long ago

Still, that love for you so ancient and so new

Fresh as that first day, a rainy day, I cast my lovelorn eyes on you.

At 65 onward,

Grow old with me I ask you not.

But keep in the love we’ve had.

In all ways, for always

You and I.

Oct. 27, 2019