Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Name:
Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Life obliges





Doodling with words and noodling with ideas
I grab a half-grown cat and place him on the
round cement table top on my patio.  The cat
is manila-colored and the table is green on
yellow with the green being streaks working
their way into the center like a whirlpool or
like a website that’s buffering.  I rub and
scratch the cat’s back from back to front 
against the nap. The girls baby the kittens, 
but I’m pretty rough, pressing its body against 
the table so it can’t escape.  The cat’s eyes 
narrow with pleasure and it meows up to me.
Cat’s have really small mouths filled with
sharp, carnivorous teeth.  I let the cat
up and it seems dazed like Woody Allen
exiting the Orgasmatron.  The cat then
does the most amazing thing.  It goes
to the edge of the table and pours itself
over the edge, pours itself the same as
an upholstered-looking crest of water over
a dam, but it lands, silently without
a splash, nailing its four-pawed landing
with perfect balance, ready like a line
backer to tackle anything that comes
his way.  I sip my Bloody Mary, which
let’s face it is why I’m sitting out here on
a beautiful Thai afternoon at four clock,
and stare down at the cat. I think the
cat has a name but I do not yet know
what it is. It’s obviously not scared of me
because it has formed itself into the shape 
of a Davy Crocket coonskin cap and looks 
on the verge of falling asleep.  My doodling
and noodling evaporate and you can guess
what I do next.  I grab the cat and again
put him in the center of the vortex.  The
cat looks miffed and I pull a Homer Simpson-
face meaning I can’t imagine why I did that,
either.   In a moment the cat goes to the
table's edge and goes over again, repeating
what I consider to be an almost unspeakable 
act of grace.  It obliges me.

FG           10/29/2015