Break Down The Wall – 22nd October 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen

Disappointment with humanity
And the reality we conceed
To American dreams of freedom
From which we’ll never be freed

Misinformed and kept indebted
To slave away for all we need
Uneducated and ignorant
Of other points of view or creed

But the towers of empire crumble
As revolutions rise from seed
And the writing is on the wall
But only for those who read

23rd Aug 2024 – Submitted to Poets and Storytellers United – break free

Today I’m feeling:

(Early) Anxious and wound up. I went to sleep easily but woke up cold because of the intense aircon that I couldn’t figure out how to temper. Both Amy and I feel like we have colds and that could quite easily be true after being on a plane and then into the crazy humidity here. My shoulders are stiff from not moving much on this hard bed and I’m awake well before I’d like to be.

(Late) Calm and contemplative after a 2-hour massage, good food and even a reasonable enough temperature to do the short walk back to the hotel from the shopping centre. Back home tomorrow. Happy.

Today I’m grateful for:

Nong Fai for picking us up at the airport last night when we were dog-tired after a long day.

The funny taxi driver who picked us up from the train station this afternoon and then the Auntie who massaged me into pain for two hours at the hotel. Bless them all for their small parts in my story.

The best thing about today was:

Finding new work pants at Monotone and then some cheap soaps at Bath and Body Works after a train and MRT ride into the city. No rush today, everything will be ok.

Also sending a couple of boxes of things back home via a courier service so that our bags will make the weight limit for our final flight. Only 430 baht. Bargain (so long as it arrives!)

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

I got caught out yet again with my visa, this time not having a re-entry permit so now I just have a 30-day visa on arrival until I go to immigration again on Tuesday.

I have a visa to stay and I can leave any time but I’m not allowed to leave without permission and not allowed back in with the visa! Frustrating.

Something I learned today?

I found the Monotone stores in BKK again today and was advised to use LINE to contact them in future rather than use Shopee as there are fake stores on there! Weird to think that people would imitate this rather small independent brand.

I took this picture because I like the message for my kids and am curious if any of them will tell me that it is grammatically incorrect. 

15 thoughts on “Break Down The Wall – 22nd October 2023”

  1. Alas, too few read on. Empires do indeed fall but the successive empires are just as shaky and also fall. Each empire dies from its own arrogant belief that it wont.

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  3. Truth spoken
    I like
    ‘But the towers of empire crumble
    As revolutions rise from seed’

    I enjoyed reading about your experiences. I understand you are in Thailand A friend of mine is too. I loved her photos so much (elephants and pink dolphins) that this country is now on my bucket list

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    1. Welcome to Thailand. Like anywhere, the experience is different to visit than it is to stay. I’m happily tucked away from a lot of humanity up in the mountain jungle of the North.

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

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    1. As an English teacher in Thailand these days it is more likely bad grammar. Plurals are rarely used here and ending sounds are also often dropped when spoken (both in Thai and in English). I’m constantly having to remind my students to pronounce the ‘s’ sound. Potentially worse still is that I sometimes find myself doing it too now! 🙃

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  7. Your poem has so incredibly much to say!!! Thankful I am a thoughtful reader, take my time, try not to miss the important ‘stuff.’ Also, your notes blow me away ~~~ I love reading them.

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    1. Thank you so much. I’ve been reading so much poetry recently and often a lot of it just passes me by and it will take a special hook or line to get me to take more time with it. Sometimes I come across a word that in my mind is a stereotypical generic poetic word that turns me off and then I will look at the rest of the poem around it and try to understand why this word was used and why it is that I despise it so much!

      I’m fairly straight forward with my own writing and not much into what I call ‘flowery’ words and I consider myself more a lyricist than a poet really. I do enjoy analysis of a good poem though, especially when it brings understanding, though I’d prefer to just be understood immediately!

      I’m glad you enjoy the notes, they are really just for me and usually get added to my posts a few months after I post a poem, which I challenged myself to post everyday and have managed to do for two or three years now.

      I realised that I used to write lyrics and poems ALL the time when I was younger but had stopped doing that for 20 years or so and thought I would enjoy getting back to it. And so I have!

      That was probably more information than you needed! Haha

      TLDR: Thanks!

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    1. None ever mentioned it to me but perhaps one or two were curious. Sadly, here in Thailand, students are often taught not to talk back to teachers and so become scared to say anything. I have experienced this often and try to convince them that I welcome their feedback and corrections because I know that none of us are perfect.

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