Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Beam and Leanna Will Never Meet






At six, Beam has two ponytails sprouting
from each side of her head just above her ears.

She reminds me of my own daughter Leanna
at that age who ran a steam shovel in an arcade
for three hours, trying to scoop up quarters
and deposit them down a chute.  If I had left
because of money, she would win me home by
money.  It was a joyless game trying to control
the shovel and, of course, the house always wins.

Children, the Arabs say, belong to all of us and
although it may be a cop out for me, I believe it.

Now Beam, with both feet flat on the floor,
hunkers down and hunches over a 7-inch tablet,
playing a game or “do toon”.  She is motionless
and off-center in my twenty-foot-square beautiful
blue tile floor.  She is no higher than a lawn
Gnome and looks like a small, decorative statue
I’ve picked out as my own and plucked off a high
ledge on the façade of the Museum dedicated to
the Accomplishments of Man.  
 FG May 4, 2013

All right reserved by the author Forrest Greenwood.

“do toon”  transliteration of the Thai for “watching cartoons.”