Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Sunday, September 7, 2014

In Mueang Narai Hospital (August 2014)




Never sicker I told my young Thai doctor;
he may have made a note but said nothing.
Three days later, even worse, I’m sitting
on the edge of narrow bed unable to touch
the floor, and getting a bed bath by a nurse
while Chunky’s 18 year-old daughter keeps
me from falling.  My head lolls from side to side.
I know this room, but not the rooms on floors
above or below.  A hundred feet outside there’s
mini mart selling Lays and things I know,
but otherwise I am lost.  Illness and death
are contractions, a getting smaller and smaller.
Never sicker I tell my Thai doctor on his rounds.
But when I try to throw words around how I feel
I say it’s the agony index to this illness I can’t
bear.  His English is fine.  He looks down at me. 
Maybe he understands me, maybe not,
but he says nothing.

FG 9/6/2014

www.ForrestGreenwood.blogspot.com

Lays potato chips.  They are the same as in the US and almost a synonym for snack food.

This is a small hospital in Lopburi which is about an hour from Chong Khae.