I can remember when you went off to school
and there was nothing for me to do
for a whole day
but stand on a chair
by the kitchen window
watching for your return
from that miles away curve
with your lunch box swinging
and always knowing
what to do.
~ Vincent MacIsaac
Vincent MacIsaac is a Canadian resident of Phnom Penh. He works as […]
You never asked why, or how I found your village
despite not knowing its name or the alarming language
I heard while walking towards you.
It was the map you drew, years before,
in that rented room off Lang Suan
You had arrived on an overnight bus
doubtful as Bangkok morning sky
till your fingers retraced the indelible route
to a point on […]
The Lonely Planet said the roads would be “good.”
That just meant they were paved.
The crossing, too, much longer than expected:
back and forth across the drying rivers,
round quarried mountains,
through stricken forests – the splintered stumps, the severed brush,
the manic birds in plaintive swoops – and so many
futile stretches of tin and plastic and cardboard lives.
The Environmentalists […]
