M-ystery
O-f
D-readful
E-pidemic
S-preads
T-he
O-utbreak
A-s
B-acteria
U-ses
N-asty
G-rime
I-n
N-astiness
Topic: Birthday of Modesto Abungin (May 25)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
M-essage
O-f
D-ivine
E-xpression
S-hares
T-he
O-utstanding
A-crostic
B-y
U-sing
N-ice
G-reeting
I-n
N-obility
Topic: Birthday of Modesto Abungin (May 25)
Form: Vertical Monocrostic
Goes in hot. Comes out hot.
But this may be more than the casual student
Will want to know.
Mom’s grinding chilies for me in Modesto.
Red, green, a dash of fresh cilantro,
Fermented shrimp sauce and a pinch of salt
Between her mortar and pestle.
Dabbing a sticky ball of khao nhio
Into the tiny ceramic saucer, I know
She’s a sorceress
In her kitchen
Trying to find a way to say
She loves me, hoping my prodigal tongue
Is still Lao enough
To understand what her broken English cannot convey.
My eyes are cisterns of tears after 30 years.
I should say “mak phet” and grab some cold milk
But with a smile through the pain I stammer
“Saep lai, Mae, delicious, Mom.
Saep lai, hak Mae lai lai.”
“Don’t talk, just eat,” she says between her tears.
We think them plentiful, like jumping shrimp and tiny crabs:
These mak hung, these chilies, the base for padaek.
The mouth waters with even a mention.
Every heart of Laos knows it well.
Cross oceans and mountains, battlefield and basement,
Oz or Kyrgyzstan, Modesto or Nashville, Phoenix or Pakse.
Meet anyone who can say sabaidee or a word of passa lao.
Even if they don’t remember their history or family,
How to nop or how to fon, or the secrets to singing a good mor lum
We still become one again with as little as a dish.
Our bellies fill like an ancient queen, a saint of Laos,
Our heroines and heroes, our elders and children,
The clever beauties and the dreaming scholars.
Pounding away until it’s so hot you sweat,
A mix of sweet and salt, starch and bite
What poet, what priest,
What politician, what legend can truly compete or compare?
We sing of the fine dok champa, but our people also sleep
With memories of mak hung, a smile, a tongue afire.