Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Grandmother and The Kitten




My Thai-wife’s grandmother has spent
the day securing the fence around the house
with metal bed-spring parts sprung from
the recycler next door and refurbishing
our old rabbit hutch for a white kitten that
persists in making the inaccessible space
behind the propane tank in the kitchen
accessible at night for the un-house broken.
The kitten is too young to be let out at night.
She has worked at these tasks “without
heat” as Faulkner once wrote and while
wearing a brown-knit bowler hat that
reminds me, for some reason, of Pablo
Picasso.  She has fashioned new bamboo
bars using a machete, patched the roof
with old drywall and secured everything
with piano-wire. When the kitten escaped
before the old woman could finish her roll-
your-own smoke, she arose in due course
and began stuffing old blankets and rags
in possible escape routes.  Picasso once told
his grandchildren to piss on a new statue to
cure it.  Art is never neat.  I don’t know
whom I rooting for here because both
sides have art and artifice on their side. 
I’ll keep you posted.

FG 7/29/2013
  
All rights reserved by the author Forrest Greenwood.