Still here
but kind of parochial now.
The older I get
-the more I do this thing-
the more I love Australia
and the more I get away
and the more I love…
And so forth.
So up the mountain we go,
up the Mae Sa Valley with
Redgum playing.
Cuts to ‘Flame Trees’
as we hit the lookout.
My little Australian chick on the back
of our little scooter.
“Hold on tight now, Tinka,
no fallin’ off the back!”
“I’m just savourin’ familiar sights”
rings out of the phone
as we park; somehow rings completely
true as, for the first time, we meet the heavy
air
that descends
with the sun
over Samoeng Forest.
Yer, that’ll do: heavy air,
over thick green
climbing over itself
to reach up
and pull
the heavy down.
Ok, that’ll do.
I like to smile at the other whiteys up here
as we pass each
other on
our little vehicles.
They give me nothing.
So I smile my hello
with even more intent.
They hate to be outed as just
another tourist.
Calm down, whitey.
We all know. We see that you’re a tourist,
that I’m a tourist,
that we’re in Thailand with the Thais;
let’s all just smile at one another,
for there’s nothin’ to do but enjoy the ride
up all the Samoeng Forests
of our lives.
But I do
love to play
on bein’ an Aussie.
I keep the handlebar and the tan and the tats
to remind ‘em all.
I love it more and more
the older I get.
I allow myself that bullshit.
And I let me love the view
and I ready up ‘Khe Sanh’
as we pack the scooter up
then descend
within a green now known
by touches of orange
and splatters of calm.
