A survey of the skin
Tells our stories
A book held within
Full of old glories
The cut, once blood
When tears did run
Baked on, caked on mud
Drying in the sun
Each crevice and crack
Formed from laughs and cries
Can never be turned back
No matter how many tries
Botox babies and teens
Scared to take a fall
Fear what it all means
When it means not much at all
10th May 2024 – Shared to dVerse OLN
Today I’m feeling:
Slept early last night and got up early ready to go for a ride with Bruno, up to Doi Chang.
I was too early for Utopia but felt pumped to be going on a long ass ride. Once getting into the mountains the cool clean air tickled my nose with the now-familiar smells of fresh growth foliage and flowers. All the food stalls around added to the perfume and even the small fires around reminded me of camping trips from days gone by.
It was a joy to be out there today.
Today I’m grateful for:
Bruno being the way he is and leading us to accidentally drink civet-shit coffee overlooking a glorious long valley view.
The owners also gave us a fresh avocado with local honey and Bruno asked if they had any more to which he was told sure, just go pick them. They went off under the terrace and picked up 4 or 5 big cricket balls from high up using a net on a 3-metre bamboo pole. I love that Bruno will just go and do what takes his fancy and it always ends us up in interesting situations
The best thing about today was:
The ride down from Doi Chang and through Doi Wawee was just beautiful and Wawee especially was a pretty village. The school had just let out students at midday and we drove up past the gates. The school is magnificent, sculpted up the hillside, and looks impeccable. All the kids were happy and playful as they tumbled out down the hill.
Riding through these places made me reflect a bit more on my place in Thailand and as a teacher. I can understand more about the teacher’s and the student’s apathy when I see the places where they live and the lack of opportunities and ambition around them. I give them a hard time to make the best of themselves and now I recognise those soft faces looking up at me quietly expressing, ‘What’s the point?’
Once on the road back to Mae Chan, I got stuck behind a van with about ten school students stuffed in the back along with various packages, parcels and goods. They were all happily, lazily chatting and looking at their phones, perhaps just being in the happy childhood state of not knowing what is going to happen next, where they are going or what they will do when they arrive.
In opposition, all I wanted to do was overtake the van but the roads were too twisty to be able to get around. I just wanted to get home to where I knew exactly everything that will happen. I wished I could go back to that state of happiness that comes from interruptions to boredom, saying yes to anything, just to hang out a bit longer.
When I was like that I was usually the last one home.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I thought I would struggle with not having my usual two morning coffees but for some reason, I was just psyched to be riding and didn’t really want to stop anywhere until we got ‘there’, wherever the next ‘there ‘ was.
At the end of the 7-hour ride, covered in mud, dirt and dust I dropped into Utopia for coffee finally and they all wondered why I hadn’t been in the morning.
Something I learned today?
I learned that civet shit coffee tastes smooth but is overpriced and overrated.
What was I like as a child?
The same as I am now but less grown up….in effect, I am still a child, it is just that I have learned how to handle adult responsibilities.
1994ever 
There’s nothing wrong with a few crow’s feet, Shaun; they show how much we’ve laughed and smiled in our lives. I like the internal rhyme ‘Baked on, caked on mud’ and the alliterative ‘crevice and crack’. I’m embracing mine, and can’t wait for the rest of my hair to turn silver.
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I’m reminded of comedian Bobby Lee’s thinking. He says “I never trust any older person who doesn’t have crow’s feet. It means that they haven’t laughed!”
As I spent the first 26 years of my life in England I am still without crow’s feet at 57. No sunshine, no laughter! I’m making up for it now.
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I echo Kim’s thoughts…..the aging process is a natural thing. The alternative, as I always say, is not good. For me….these words are ones to ponder.
“Fear what it all means
When it means not much at all”
For me, the laugh lines, the lines in my forehead, the blue-veined maps on my hands, the age spots on my arms, the hair on my head thick as ever but now grey/silver….they all mean a lot. They mean I’ve aged and lived through eras in my life….no regrets. Am happy with who I am….enjoying my grown children, seeing them parent their teenager children….the travel we do, minus the strenuous hiking but still savoring beautiful scenery together. Aging is good….it’s the getting used to the slower pace….and seeing friends have health difficulties and knowing those will probably be upon me too. Someone once said they were surprised to hear a visitor to their hospital room say, “I wish you a good death.” But it makes sense to me.
Probably way more than you wanted to read as a reply….but that’s the mark of a good writer when you strike a chord with your reader and make her/him reflect and connect to what you’ve written.
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Your reply is much appreicated. Thank you. “I wish you a good death” – I like that.
I hope that the poem comes through as in agreeance with both yours and kim’s thoughts.
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Back in the day everybody got cuts that left scars because we were outside and playing all the time. Every scar that is still on this old body is a memory that I cherish. I wonder if, at the end, it will be the only memories left?
The photo is of a stunning landscape. How blessed you are to live in such a place.
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I do feel blessed to live here that’s for sure though I am only blessed because I came here with money. The dirt poor here don’t have time to marvel at the views as I do. And even despite their struggles most people are kind and outwardly show happiness. There is very little petty crime here.
The first part of your comment reminds me of a conservative lady I met one time who looked at my tattoos and told me that I would regret them one day, to which I replied ‘I’m already 40, when will I regret them? They all come off when you die anyway.”
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What the lady doesn’t realize is that your body will continue to be scarred, whether by ink or by wrinkles or age spots, as time goes on. There’s no escaping it.
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What a wonderful day you had! Ans such a great place to work 🤩
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It’s been too hot to ride here for the last 4 months but the rains have started and cooled things down a little bit, cleared the air. I’m excited to get back out there again.
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I totally agree about civet-shit coffee being overpriced! Love the internal rhymes of your poem. I wear my wrinkles as badges of living a life unafraid of sun and life’s harshness.
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Thanks for reading! 🙏
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