ladyoracle, posts by tag: poem - LiveJournal

Easter Sunday in Phuket, Thailand

It is Easter Sunday in Phuket, Thailand
but no one cares about the hotel’s brunch
where the only pastel eggs on Patong Beach
can be found. The potatoes slowly dry out on top,
the juice congealing around them
as with the pork chops waiting in warmers
for foreign tourists who won’t be bothered
to feast at the cost of ceding coveted poolside chaises
or foregoing diving expeditions and elephant treks
by the beach town swallowed in tsunami
just five years before, according to the guided tour
of ruble plotted along a 120-minute circuit
left unrepaired to make us all witnesses
on this mornings such as this
when oh, how the Indian Ocean waves
wave upon wave pearls of iridescent foam
toward sand-tossed sidewalks along the shore
as if professing absolution
in battering the city now resurrected, but scarred.

Whistler Mountain, Canada
for Jack

In summer the snow on Whistler
is too wet to throw, but we tried
decked out with gloves, scarves, and heavy leather--
to the amusement of mountain bikers
in shorts and light jackets.
What did we care, hamming it up
with cameras out counting bear sightings
from the venicular,
our lungs frantic for fresh air
after our year in the perpetually tropical
but black-skyed Malaysia.
Looking out at the pond below
It seemed that we could hold time
in the pond where the glacial river flowed,
if not our slushed clumps of snow,
and in a still moment
you kissed me crooked, boyish
both of us smiling
like life let us get away
with something.