On KhuViang road
Sabaydii,
Here is the continuation of a series 'Coming home' entitled 'On KhuViang road'
Hakphaang,
Kongkeo Saycocie
On KhuViang road
After paying a visit to Wat Simuang
I walked to KhuViang road
Once the proud outer wall of Vientiane kingdom
This road lining up with trees on both sides
Was such a perfect spot
To walk around
As the trees sheltered me from the sweltering heat
Though paved
This road especially the section close to Talat Souawt
Was sending off dust with every vehicle passing by
I had to cover my nose and mouth very often indeed
On the roadside
Some female merchants took their place
Selling a variety of fruits
With hardly any customers stopping by
Not far behind them on my right
Stood a shack
Made of carton blocks
Not that far behind
Stood the mosquitoes infested swamp
With the houses built over them
Close to twenty years
I had been away from the country
And still everything was pretty much the same
The water in the swamp
Was still dark and smelly
And the houses weren’t that any better
Maybe with the exception of many clothes hanging on the clothesline
Right in front of the houses across the shaky wood bridges
The medical school on my left
Fared no more better
Its wall covered with flying red dust
Making the school looked even older and hopelessly dilapidated
Only the Morning Market
Where I was heading to
Was in a better shape
Obviously
The market was remodeled
Fancy sections
Catering to the new rich were added
Once I got there
And about to go to the second floor
The money changers crowded me
Hunting for any foreign currencies
Preferably the U.S. dollars
Took me sometime to make the way through them
My only intention at the market
Was to buy a Khene
I would bring back to the U.S.
As they say
Wherever there is a Khene or heard the Khene played
You could be sure that there is a Lao there
I myself mean to perpetuate that saying
As long as my breath still carries me
9.12.03
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Farewell my dear
Sabaydii,
Here is the continuation of a series 'Coming home' entitled 'farewell my dear'
Hakphaang,
Kongkeo Saycocie
Farewell my dear
The last day arrived
I got up very early
With the dawn still on the horizon
Hard to put into words
What it meant to leave
Something dear to your heart
Your whole being is rooted in
As the car approached the Watay airport
I felt a chill in my heart
Like the very night I crossed the Mekong
On the way to a country not of mine any more
Will this be the last time
I would be walking in this land of my ancestors?
Nobody knows what tomorrow may bring
Who knows I might be struck dead in a foreign land
And never return to see my beloved Muang Lao again?
With all the talking joking and laughing all around me
I felt nothing but lonely
Why does it have to be this way?
Why do I have to leave?
Will there ever be a day I don't have to leave her again?
With the stamp out on my passport
I lifted my weary legs
Past the gate
Past the waiting room
And out to the waiting airplane
Looking back from the plane window
At the building I left behind
Seeing my in-laws waving back at me
I felt my heart sink
As the plane took off
Nothing but an emptiness inside me
Like the zigzagging of the Mekong
The lifeblood of Muang Lao below
I don't know when I am going to zigzag back
To the land of my ancestors again
9.12.03
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