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Jack Thompson Jan 2017
I'm gonna spend my time
Escaping my own thoughts
When I dwell just too long
Everything in my heart goes wrong.

I'm just trying to live today
Until the next.
The things I have to do
Just to make it.

Life gradually losing its meaning
Day in day out nothing changes
Just to lay here under you
Your mercy my displeasure.

Farang
© All Rights Reserved Jack Thompson 2017
PL McGroarty Dec 2017
Dear Mae Sai,
You’ve been a hard pill to swallow.
Downward gazes and inside jokes.
Farang, farang.
Little pointing fingers followed by a wave of giggles as my floor-length dress with the slit down the side blows wild in the breeze,
trying to contain my runaway drapery,
maintain modesty in a border town where summer dresses don’t fly.
A voice cautions from the inside:
"You’re not in the islands anymore dear one.."

Om Namah Shivaya
I murmur steadily to myself repelling thoughts of “I just want to go home.”
There is no home, not outside in the physical world at least.
This here is a recurring theme.
Now I’m really traveling.
How dislocated will you become before you eliminate outside chatter,
and go to work paving the temple solace inside yourself,
the eternal home within the eternal om,
the exterior is irrelevant.

Oh Mae Sai,
soot and smoke bellow up from your belly
placing masks on the mountains at your back,
your wretched reflection glows unforgiving in the street.
Glorious, unpainted authenticity.

**** the farangs, they’re just passing through.
Smile til my face hurts,
it mostly makes no difference,
and then when I’m feeling so unwanted that I can’t hold back the tears,
you throw me curve ***** with every passing street.

A little Burmese babe with the brightest smile
still unsure of how fast her feet will carry her,
she dashes to my right and with the smacking sound of her lips
and the grace of her palm she blows me a kiss.

Thank you sweet one,
that’s just what I needed…
*'Farang' means 'foreign/foreigner' in Thai, derived from 'farangsayt,' which means 'French.'

During a failed visa run in 2016 I found myself stuck on the border of Thailand and Myanmar for several days in Mae Sai waiting for the Thai immigration office to reopen. It was uncomfortable and I cried for hours one day just sitting alone on a stoop, watching people struggle to make ends meet, very few people cracked a smile-- but the whole experience was incredibly therapeutic
****-zip-bang shenyang ang;
Mang mangue flang hang prang pang;
Pinang lalang unhang kang youth defang khang;
Marang schlang gang wolfgang ying-yang xuanzang.
Klang sea get wrang.

Sang tsang li-kang gangue langues.
Thang drang crang tang harangue sprang zhang shang siang whang strang hang verdinsgang chuang;
Brang lang nang bhang xiaogang mahuang durang huang.
Hange hsiang und;

Zang rang kuomintang ourang section gang hang.
Krang pahang boomerang fang guilt;
Spang gang;
Hangsang xinjiang tunkelang slang tangue nanchang clang chang bangue vang ziyangbaoguang hwang pang the tsiang alang dang ylang-ylang.

Tang liang.
Overhang langue pyongyang.
Cangue sangh mustang stang frang yang lange kukang farang **** care sturm t'ang;
Zamang drang chiang road a jang;
Qualyxian Quest Dec 2018
to not fear the terror of the Night
          I endure unsure
        ocean sky in sight

a grateful look back, places and plight
       dear Dublin, sunlit Stockholm
              also hospital sites

I learned as farang; I learned from fights
              suffered quite often
               as a shy guy might

If eternal nothingness is the only Height
              to the Void with courage!
                     shunyata insight.
Qualyxian Quest Jul 2023
We die without ever knowing
Sad. Sad but true.
Her voice is gentle caring
Her eyes midnight blue

Marguerite Porete
Sentenced to the fire
George W. Bush
All American Liar

Everybody loves Thai food
Yellow curry, sticky rice
All those Asian rains
Mango. Very nice.

Watchin' a lot of movies
Sleeping late and long
Pretty far from Bangkok
Where I was farang

                 thinking
Qualyxian Quest Jul 2023
The American religion is not true
There is no God to bless
Snowfall shunyata
Seattle: emptiness

Miso soup, brothels
Cedarsnow at night
Drive South from Chicago
2 green lights

Lonely Tokyo hotel
Shabu Shabu in the rain
Even if she were here
No way to no my pain

3773
Long gone, dear Taiwan
Mountains in the mist
France for the farang

                  forward!
Qualyxian Quest Sep 2020
Motorcyle taxi in the Thai twilight
                  Som Tam
                    farang.

— The End —