apricot tea in Thailand
breakfast fruit set up on balcony
welcoming rain greeted us
I felt grateful that I had come
this gentle ambiance worth remembering
We were thrilled with the idea of sometime going to Thailand
And seeing the Dragon Temple at the top of the pretty Asian land.
Winding itself around the roof is a giant dragon with fire in his eyes.
We can hardly imagine how terrorizing this is in morning’s sunrise.
I am an old man
a deep well
an epoch marriage
a raven haired beauty
five above average kids
Orion deckhand and cook
teacher of the year
Bible study leader
jail preacher
song worship leader
NAU graduate --graduate school
ASU graduate --undergraduate school
life guard
breakfast cook
English tutor
Archie Brokeshoulder's well puller
grain elevator operator
pizza chef
dishwasher
mental hospital patient
prisoner
welder
all region linebacker
wrestler
pole vaulter
3 high schools
4 jr highs
2 elementary schools
8 states
2 dads
5 moms
6 sisters
4 brothers
13 presidents
I am an old man
I'll swim a mile
this morning
and dance
all night
golf tomorrow
backpack Europe
visit kids in Montana
come back to Arizona
visit kids in Kentucky
do more Europe
come back to Arizona
swim and golf
then who knows
India, Nepal, Tibet
I am an old man
looking for something
Sad Detritus It In Eight
Sam Adams looked back
at the lost loves
Failed opportunities
And monolithic blues
That he concluded
Was the sad detritus of his life.
He sighed and went out
To the Cosmos bar for another drink.
They are not from Chiang Mai,
they are a tribal people
who speak a hill language.
They ride through the night
on bicycles to settle at dawn
beside the Ping River.
Girls' unroll rattan mats
squat beside straw hats brimful
with the tang of burgundy chilies
They have vegetables
grown in lime green waters,
parched salty anchovies,
and plump spearheads
of opalescent fish -
all these are bargained for,
bundled in newspaper,
tied with pink raffia.
Our lives cross here.
A few coins dropped into an open palm,
nods and smiles by a river,
a common currency bridging
alien worlds.
Thai's - out of respect,
may not look directly at you
until they are sure you are riddled
with the dead.
There are village ghosts and mountain ghosts,
river ghosts and jungle ghosts,
some ghost haunt each other
and form clouds in the eyes of children.
The ghosts of Thailand
tend to linger in this world for a while;
for the roads to other realms are jammed
with ox-carts, trishaws toot-toots,
and gaily painted trucks.
Here is a strange thing:
the female ghosts will attach
to good men and their dreams;
they make them love dead flowers,
blooms that shine again in the afterlife.
Each specter has one of those
in her long black hair, but the flowers
are all bright and bone-white.
If you are a bad man,
there are other female ghosts,
with even longer hair,
they are remorseless; they will bind you
to a fiery night-horse evermore.
Males, even foreigners,
are natural hosts for female ghosts.
Men may go home to their wives;
perhaps to a far land,
but a she-ghost will sleep between them -
this is normal.
men who have no female ghost to sleep with
are not worthy,
according to Thai folklore.
Thailand endures rout
Record-setting 13 goals-
controversy brews
I once knew a Thai man
Who had an affair
And at the time he said
He did not care
Well it was not long
Before his wife found out
Now she didn't scream
And nor did she shout
She simply walked over
To the kitchen drawer
And pulled out a carving knife
Need I say more!
Very swiftly and at the double
She cut of the thing
That was causing the trouble
She tied it to a helium balloon
With Some string
And let fly in the air
That troublesome thing
That was not the end of the story, oh no
To the Thai County Court
She was summonsed to go
There she was charged with
Grievous bodily harm
Although I've heard say that
She kept very calm.
But here husband was charged
With a serious offence too!
Indecent exposure to the passengers
Of Panam flight 742!
HELL OF THAILAND
two men beat their chests
contest of very hot spice
the hell of Thailand
first man’s sweat pours out
a linen napkin’s laughing
vainglorious plight
eyes of number two
tears streaming grow big and sting
vein-bulge vanity
admiring friends
cheer and jibe in kodachrome
racing pulse of weak
4/12/2018
T-he haven of beauty with its brightest tree- flowers strewn in bloom,
H-ailing as masterpiece in one’s heart overwhelmed in deep admiration;
A-pril and May are chanting in triumphs claiming their grandest season,
I-n kaleidoscopic colors arching a warmest welcome to every nation.
L-et your tarried gaze saunters for a while,
A-nd inhale the most scrumptious fragrance in squiggled file;
N-uzzle on their petals as you close your eyes,
D-ream a dream that is never elusive in your life.
©2014by Leonora Galinta
April 27, 2014/12.20pm
Second Place
Contest: A poem you have not entered in contest #2
Judged: 6/12/2014
Sponsor: Dearest Poet Linda/PD
Beauty and splendor,
the unoffender,
scenic blue skies,
masked a great disguise,
of one's intimate demise.