Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Now That I Am Old




Now that I am old
I walk in the late afternoon
and not in the morning, so
a dimming red sun is setting
at the end of a sea of green rice
in the west and not blaring
like a trumpet announcing the  
beginning of another imperial
day rising in the east.

The sharecroppers and poor,
as we do too, live on fingers 
of land that reach into this
green sea like piers.

I walk more slowly.  I try
to keep my former pace,
but I know I walk more
slowly now.

Between the empty berths
the bushes are dead-still
on my right shoulder.  
I knew them in the morning,
swelling to meet the sun,
but now they just hold
their place in the late
afternoon air.

FG 10/16/2014

The weather has changed so there are no late afternoon showers and it’s also much cooler. This is the high season in Thailand and the weather is drop-dead gorgeous.  But I usually have a beer around 4 pm, and as I have been advised to not drink, I go for a walk instead.  Three days out of five this seems to work.

I’m at a time where just holding you place counts for something.