Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Saturday, April 19, 2014

The Hancock




The Observation deck
made me nervous.  Looking
down at planes landing at Logan
I could deal with, but the large
ceiling-to-floor windows went
right to the edge and that
was a place I didn’t want to be.

I hung around the inner core
room that had a model of Boston
which proudly showed the land
The Hancock was built on was
once a swamp – great!  The two
guys I was with could see my
unease and stood toes to the
windows as if they were going
to take a piss.  “Hey, Greenwood,
look at this view!”

The Hancock turned out to be
a fiasco.  The five-hundred pound
mirrored windows fell out with
regularity and each one brought
seven years’ bad luck crashing
down on Claredon Street.  I. M. Pei
collected awards for architectural
excellence, but the tombstone-like
building swayed so badly it made
people sick.   

I took the elevator down without
my friends.  Elevators are counter-
balanced, and around the thirtieth
floor I felt a shudder as the opposite
car passed us racing to the top packed
with posers who would, no doubt, come
to relate their Observation deck
trip while cackling in the third person.

FG 4/19/2014

We live in an age of lies.  The Tower of Babel did not fall because people spoke different languages; it fell because people lied to each other.  Tell a lie often enough (it’s called staying on message to a politician) and it becomes so common place, no one notices it’s really a lie.