15. Bicycle, Angkor

26 January 2019, 22:02

I’m in Seam Reap now, and I got in a bit of trouble at Angkor. I climbed the wrong thing and was taken to a covered area to be talked to by a security guard and a man wearing a “Police” hat. They were friendly and talked about heritage while also reprimanding me for my actions. “I’m sorry, I did not know,” I repeated.

There are four salamanders/geckos on the walls in my hostel. I’m sitting at a table in the bar area, and there’s some house music playing, but I have my headphones in, and I’m listening/watching LTAT, the Saturday episode of Rhett & Link.

 

12:12

This is nowhere
I ever thought I’d be
Beside a tree
Sitting on the banks
Of Trapeang Srah Sang
A little lake several kilometers
Northeast of Angkor Wat.

I took off
My shoes and socks
Waded in, snapped a photo.

Prayed a poem, wrote it down
After fingering the dirt and mud
Between my toes.

 

14:18

Sitting cross-legged on Ta Keo
A temple-mountain-pyramid
Possibly the first to be built
Entirely of sandstone
By ancient Khmers I’ve seen
What I came here to see
But maybe there’s
More to come This Giant mountain bike
Has carried me far
through a dark jungle
on roads of pavement & sand

I will read, now,
Before heading “home.”

 

17:44

“Am I annoying you?”
“Yes, honey, you are.”
“Humph.”
A bad joke, I know
It just sort of slipped out
While waiting in
Line for Phnom Bakheng
   (The wife asked a question
To her husband; I answered for him,
A stranger.) This ride better have a
Loop-de-loop It was like waiting your turn
At Disneyland Or the DMV. But this sunset Is worth it (I’ve seen better; Thank you, clear Oregon skies.)

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