MY SCARLET LETTERS

(to my mentor nanay moling, all these years)

My scarlet letters
You have unwritten,
And gave my vestment colors anew
Paler than the whitewashed
Stones and sands
That niched
These walls—
Walls that once frowned,
Walls that wrote
Those letters
At this chest
That now heaves
An ensemble
Of notes that lilt
Of your years
That held mine
In your arms.