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Sabaydii,
Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming home’ entitled ‘Lodging at SaiLom’
Hakphaang,
Kongkeo Saycocie
The other day arrived
First thing in the morning
I changed the hotel
Cheaper and more suitable to my needs
The one at SaiLom[1]
Where the lot in front of the gas station
Was like a bomb
Got dropped onto
Was told
They were building a new road
Paved one of course
Still couldn’t figure out
Why a big hole
Like a moon crater
Lying over there
As usual
The Sailom road
Like other roads in
Was in the process of repaving
No wonder
Red dust were flying everywhere
My hotel was for the next few days
Stood with its front to the road
Ready to receive the big blow
Of the long overdue
The receptionist
Or maybe the owner
Or whoever at the counter
Didn’t spare a moment
Complaining about the road
That seemed never to finish
Not far from the hotel
Still in my eyesight
Stood the swamp
A perfect haven for the mosquitoes
Wonder
How could people build their huts
Over there
Look like the same kind of huts
Stuck in time 20 years and counting
At the end of Sailom road
The section close to TaLat Saot[2]
Vietnamese shoes mender stalls
Were still there
And a little bit out of sight
That Dam[3]
Black as its name could convey
Stealthily crept on the passer-by
Just couldn’t tell for sure
What That Dam meant to
And Muang Lao per se
Left unattended
Uncared for
A home for weeds and rodents
I guess nothing more could be added
Still That Dam looked at me
For an answer
Was it its fault
The Siamese crushed us?
Or was it our own fault instead
Being tricked to bury the Naga hole[4]
Sealing the Siamese victory
Of the days long long gone by?
Like everything in Muang Lao
No one wants to associate oneself
with the loser
The portent of defeat
I with the flowers
Picked up by the roadside
Lay them on the foot
Of the infamous That Dam
It is time
We let the bygones be truly bygones
For the great Naga
The protector of Muang lao
Couldn’t roam this land again
Until all Lao are one more time
Nothing but proud Lao
8.22.03
[1] The section of the town
that is close to the
[2] The biggest market in
[3] The black stupa
[4] It was believed that the
very place That Dam was built was the hole or the pathway where Naga, the
serpent-like creature – king of the