Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

On Getting Older Sooner



Growing up my world was filled
with olders and elders and a shoe
box full of just plain girls.

My father would disappear during
the day leaving and my mother to
rummage through the shoe box
and ask me, “Forrey, have you seen your
sister’s thingamajigy?”

Nope.

Olders played baseball on an adult field,
some even drove cars.  So like making
a line of curlicues across a page that
mimicked a squirrel’s run across a lawn
I ran after them hoping to be an older
sooner.

Once at school, our ex-Marine principal
called a special assembly of just
our class to berate us for not clearing
the Junior Prom plans through “the
office.”  As class president, a position
I never wanted, I stood up and said,
“Well don’t scold them, scold me.”
This man who lived and breathed
chain-of-command in the Corp was
abashed.  His face grew red and
he dismissed us.

I can guess now that the principal was
after our class advisor who never read
me in on what a president was actually
supposed to do. Or maybe he was
after his secretary for not putting
our function on his schedule or . . .
who knows.

Later I became a teacher, but to this
day I believe men should not be
teachers at least in K - 12.  It is not
a seemly job for a man. They should get
real jobs in the wider world outside
as my father did.

At 72, I still make curlicues across
the page but ask me what I’m running
after and I couldn’t say.  It is certainly
not to get older sooner - no not now.

FG       4/12/2017

 I expect to have prostate surgery on the 24th.  I feel fine now though.

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