Other Poems of Angkor Wat
Intestines of the Devil
(At Ta Prohm)
They strangle the temple walls,
these intestines of the devils
(the roots at Ta Prohm).
Intestines of the devils-they
leave as they pass this way,
big as huge pythons:
thumbs and limbs, of the dead,
coughed up on their long
journey back to hell...
Returning home at last...,
leaving a haunted midnight!...
#2195 1-30-2008
The Grand Hotel at:
Siem Reip, Cambodia
At the hotel, the waiter pointed
towards the pictures on the wall,
"See," he mumbled, "Jackie sat right here..."
where I was sitting with my wife:
how peculiar (I thought)
I walked out of the Grand Hotel,
in Siem Reip, Cambodia,
in the Mid-spring, of 2000 AD,
walked outside, onto the street,
it was very hot; I thought,
"...the very hotel Jackie Kennedy
ate at...hum!"
I walked across the street,
(busy with motor bikes) and
feet...) walked among the park folk,
smoked my Havana cigar,
looked at the stars
and I thought, thought deeply,
at fifty-three years old,
how come I hadn't been killed:
had a stroke, heart attack
even in a war
smoked twenty-years, drank
the same, took a good many
planes, and here I am, in this
park, by benches and all
embarrassed I'm still alive,
but what a thrill.
#2196 1-30-2008
Notes (#2194/1-29-2008): In 2000 AD, my wife and I took a ten-day trip to Cambodia, to Angkor Wat; also we visited Phnom Penh, and a dip in the Mekong. In the past I have not wrote much about my time, or trip in Cambodia, not sure why, it was a great trip, and the folks were kind, and the food was great, and the sites were great. Ta Prohm is a site that dates back to 1186 AD, thereabout. Of all the sites at Angkor, which is a large area, Ta Prohm has its own beauty, roots that encircle the temples there. The name is a modern name for the temple, it was originally called Rajavihara, located about one kilometer east of Angkor Tom, which to me is the tower gate, with faces, perhaps the most magnificent piece of art work at the Angkor complex. But nothing in this world is like Ta Prohm. Here you have trees growing out of the ruins, surrounding the temple, with its exposed roots. There were about 90,000-inhabidents in this area, at one time, to include dancers, priests, and common folk, so the stele records. The poem is not of course strictly on Ta Prohm, rather my time at the Angkor complex, which comprises a large acreage, and the main compound of temples being Angkor Wat itself. But the roots seem to have gotten more attention from me perhaps because when I think of my trip, the roots are the first thing that seeps into my mind, then Angkor Tom, and then the main temples, called Angkor Wat. During our stay near Angkor Wat, we went to the Grand Hotel to eat in Siem Reip, Jackie Kennedy ate there, her pictures are all around, right to the left of our table were a few.