Bangkok

Great City of Angels,

Supreme Repository of Divine Jewels,

The Great Land Unconquerable,

The Royal Capital Full of Nine Noble Gems,

The Divine Abode of Reincarnated Spirits…



Tiny,on his mighty pedestal,

The Emerald Buddha presides over the cosmos,

Lightning-born and glowing with stormclouds,

While myriads of nagas swim through the air

And the right hand calls down rain,

The left is cupped to catch it.



Male and female kites

Chase across the March sky,above crowded parks,

Trying to snare and wrestle one another

To the finishing line.



Avalokitesvara,

Bronze bodhisattva,sinuous and sublime,

Outliving the Srivijayan empire,

The grace that human hands

And imperfect human minds

Can wrest from darkness.



Under the whirling planets and years,

People kneel and offer flowers

To the lak muang,

The lotus-crowned tree

Rooted in the city’s birth,

The fruiting horoscope.



Tiny amulet of a tamarind seed

Around a girl’s neck,

Silver case inscribed with a yantra.



In Chinatown’s dark alleys,

Funeral shops sell paper replicas

Of houses,cars,clothes and money

To be burned with the dead

And equip them in the afterlife.



At Erawan shrine

People buy captive finches

To see them released from their cages,

Shedding merit from their wings.





Patpong after dark:

The neon go-go bars

And the dead-eyed sirens cajoling passers-by

While inside fluorescent girls dance onstage

For the bleary eyes of men,

Slumped over their drinks,

And upstairs the curtain rises

On another sex show.

In the market hawkers sell fake watches,

Fake designer bags and T-shirts,

And prostitutes slouch at café tables,

Faces weary from boredom,drugs and disease,

Penniless country girls earning more in one night

Than a month in the rice fields.



The masseur uses hands,feet,knees and elbows

To press upon the body’s acupuncture points,

Unblocking the channels,the flow,

Stretching the limbs into yogic postures,

Balancing fire,earth,air and water.