Journeying homewards
Automobile hit and run
Final act’s reward
23. Free Meal
Introducing Kuhn Chaidee
As you can see, he’s in good shape
That’s on account of his diet
All he can eat grows freely
Or it swims, or crawls, or flies
Kuhn Chaidee realizes
The value of possessions
Is something that’s relative
Emotional or intrinsic
Nevertheless he takes pride
His single-roomed residence
Is a permanent work-in-progress
Although a temporary construction
Built from salvaged timber, bamboo
And recycled cement sacks
24. Salon Isan
Al Fresco Beauty:
Irregular intervals
Facial hair removed
Essential tooling:
Half a bottle of Lao Khao
Mirror and tweezers
Use blunt instruments:
Don’t even think of razors!
Respect complexion
Firm grip; steady hand:
Tug those tendrils; ditch that down
Splash icy water
Apply final touch:
A shot, or three, of Lao Khao
After shave potion
25. Planet Isan
Star date, Thirty Maesayon
Twenty Five Fifty point Three
Entering Phrutsapharkhom
Ninth phase, Rama Dynasty
Atmospheric properties
Hot, humid, but breathable
Forty Celsius Degrees
Survival; conceivable
Welcome to North East Thailand
Amazing Land of the Smile
Stick around for a while and
Discover the Isan Style
Sabai dee? Wow Lao dai bor?
How are you? Do you speak Lao?
Chao si pai sai? Eeyang kor?
Where are you going? What now?
Het nar, kin khao, fang Morlam
Wan yut; welar muan lai der
Work rice, eat food, hear Morlam
Holidays; time for laughter
Life on Isan; laid back, slow
Conducted on your own terms
Recommended place to go
My experience confirms
26. Beun Bang Fai
Now that Songkhran is over
and the water’s all dried up,
we’ll make today, tomorrow,
two days of bun bang fai –
(home-made fireworks; sky rockets,
another superstition
and a good omen for rain).
Two metres of blue plastic
Waste-pipe, filled with gunpowder,
strapped to lengths of bamboo cane.
Three…
two…
one… …
BLAST OFF…!
27. Isan Heartland
Deep in the Isan heartland
Beyond banana, pineapple
Across untended rice fields
Baked hard by the summer sun
The unforgiving landscape
In cynical dry-season mood
Questions the wisdom of cars
That risk its impassable route
Our focus zeroes in on
The slow trickle of a stream
Where once flowed a full-blown river
Supplying diesel-driven pumps
Used to moisten rice in plant
Via discarded rubber hose pipes
Or home-made earthenware pots
Hand-crafted by silk-clad women
Deep in the Isan heartland
28. Casting The Spell
Sheltered, not isolated
Village Isan life goes on
Influences, attitudes
Filter through at their leisure
Nature’s barriers exist
At all points of the compass
Pu Khao and Pu Pan ranges
To East and West horizons
Converge at a point due north
While the Southernmost defences
The waters of Ubol Rat
Reservoir that fills bellies
With its rich, living harvest
As well as helping to feed
Technological habits
Hydro electricity
Surges unpredictably
Into our cell phone chargers
And Personal Computers
Isan’s own influence spreads
To the South and to cities
With a gritty-edged northern
Border region tone of voice
As it fuses traditions
With more modern attitudes
Providing a wider choice
Reflecting changes in taste
That Morlam girls know about
And can’t dance their dance without
That their writhing gestures shout
Bridging the culture divide
They’re casting the Isan spell
29. Isan Market Day
Twenty five mile of rice fields unfold
From fork to first traffic light
City limit, better watch your speed
Traffic cops are everywhere
Population, just sixteen thousand
Can’t find a parking space
Stop for roadside barbecued chicken
Stuffed full of lemon grass
One side order of sticky rice
Something wet to wash it down
Kafae ron; Doi Tung will do the trick
Served from a bicycle
Market stall holders open up now
Cuts of freshly-slaughtered beef
Pigs ears, trotters, noses, lips
Chickens, alive till sold
Just three types of chillies on the aisles
Yu-ak, chee far, khee noo
All that shopping sure makes a thirst rage
Cool drinks go down with the sun
Shophouse bar beer Chang on draught
At six point four ABV
Driver knocks back a pint of Red Bull
Won’t nod off at the wheel
Homeward; thirty five minute journey
Full beam to light the way
Step on the gas man, don’t slow down
Traffic cops’ day is done
Rewind twenty five miles of rice fields
Never a traffic light
30. The Night Jasmine
The Night Jasmine awakes
at the coolest time of year
and on evenings such as this
its perfume fills the air
while imaginations drift
downwind of the Twilight bloom
that doesn’t love the heat
of a summer afternoon
preferring instead the dead
of night at cooler times
when the intensely fragrant scent
unleashed by the Night Jasmine
exposed by encroaching dark
enhanced by the chill night air
floats free till the new day breaks
when sunlight ushers it on
uniting it with the scents
of forest field and farm
that flow from far upstream
of the swollen river bed
fed by the flash-flood falls
that form from the overfill
of underground reservoirs
high on the mountainside
where the evening mist hangs low
obscuring the silhouette
on the distant underscore
till dawn when the rising sun
chases the fallen shroud
back to the space between
her golden glow and the earth
that harboured its one-night-stand
tolerated its presence
but welcomed with open arms
its life-sustaining moisture
before showing it the door
in order to allow
the scent of the Night Jasmine
and those scents that flow from upstream
of the swollen river bed
to conjugate and bear fruit
so ripe it melts in the mouth
to leave a lingering taste
of morning mountain slopes
and hopes and fears and dreams
of men and women who
inhale the fragrant air
of the valley veiled in mist
that falls with the setting sun
on evenings such as this
when the Night Jasmine awakes
###
About The Author
Stanski is the kind of guy who doesn’t do things by half measures.
For example, he’s the guy who went to Thailand in 1999, to see in the New Millennium.
He enjoyed it there so much that he decided to stay on for a while.
He didn’t return to the UK until October…
October 2010…!
Stanski began writing in earnest in 2005 while recovering from a motorcycle accident, in the northern city of Chiangmai, in which he sustained serious head injuries.
Find Stanski on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/stan.ski.9
Examples of verse by Stanski can be found on his Blog, ‘Elephant Small’
Crawling Distance
In Decline
All photographs in this ebook © Stanski, except for those in the section ‘Papaya Pok-Pok’ © Kanpirom Srisongnang.