There Is A Gate

There is a gate which holds strangers out

and lets family in.

There is a gate which holds the past at bay

and lets the future in.

There is a gate thrown wide open for love

and closed for hate.

Doors and gates, mirrors and windows

that are open by day close by night and

wrench our dreams from our homeland.

I demand, not a mug, but a proper beer

glass.  I spent a decade in Saudi and

this afternoon the foam left on the inside of

my glass looks like Arabic script I cannot read.

FG  11/30/2014

My Thai wife worked on a road paving crew in her early teens.  Later, she worked for Minibee, a Thai forerunner of Foxcom for 15 years.  They even sent her to Japan for a couple of weeks, but with a fourth grade rural Thai education she was not management material.  She often proudly shows me a plastic, battery operated pencil sharpener though.  She took it with her from her factory experience.  She now uses it to sharpen her mascara pencil.   Oh, how I love her.