Inspired by a thought (‘magic blood’) from the Change My Mind Substack here.
* Repurposed from Chris’s poem ‘The Phoenix Tree Writes’
Final Solution – 10th June 2025
Tag: genocide
I am born of the magic blood
Habibi Was – 4th June 2025
Frustrated at every turn,
Invisible lines not to be crossed,
Random security searches,
Only finding all liberties lost;
Or checkpoints to clock in,
To be grateful for a shekel or two,
A home is not a home,
When one’s life becomes taboo;
Constant eyes are trained,
Machine guns held at the ready,
Deliberate provocations,
Ensure all balance remains unsteady;
So Habibi threw a stone,
A piece of protest found underfoot,
A frustrated release,
That was so ineloquently put;
It bounced off the tank,
Where no one was hurt by this token,
For this, he got a bullet in the head,
And another family heartbroken.
The title is a play on the Bob Marley song ‘Johnny Was’
The Chosen Ones – 3rd June 2025
We’ll educate the natives by musket and disease,
A hand on the Bible, our Lord manifests destiny,
So empowered by his word to do as we may please,
By blanket and buffalo, erase from sea to sea.
Subjugate with murder on our ancestors’ claims,
A pilgrimage of plunder when holding all the aces,
Building castles from the bones of their remains,
We’re the chosen ones among the many races.
With our fingers crossed as our promises made,
Based on the righteousness of words we twisted,
The victims of our genocides forever displayed,
Warning that our bloodlust may never be resisted.
Unbelievers, impure, will succumb to subjugation,
Fire and brimstone await those we deem sinners,
Suffer little children, bend a knee for your nation,
We will write the history, for we are the winners.
Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #22 and my quick thoughts:
The Omnific – Good stuff and new to me. The bass playing is obviously super interesting and though I guess it is a little on-the-nose in places, talent can’t be denied. Gonna check out the rest of their catalogue.
Abstract Household Warfare – After The Omnific this is too experimental to dig right now. Right now, I need rhythm!
ADR – The concept and execution behind this is very good indeed. I checked out his other album THROAT which brought to mind Senyawa and Dokaka. Interesting but not me today.
group A – When a band describes themselves as a Japanese industrial / avant-garde synth duo you never know what you might get. Interesting stuff and would be cool to see in a dark illegal warehouse.
Blarf – Some great fucked up hip-hop (I suppose) and some whacked out noise. It seems that I’m all about the rhythm today and so this one only hits in places.
Weird selection that started off nicely for me and got my attention again at the end.
You Can’t Wash It Away – 2nd March 2025
Shared with dVerse Tuesday Poetics: The Four Elements – my chosen element being earth.
The blood spills to dampen the desert;
a dusted red mochi forms.
These plains become a fertile crescent
once more.
The storm forms, a raining of boots;
Mud made men without meaning – cold earth
enveloped those troops.
A coward hides to snipe;
pap, put, pup – he spits.
Thunderfire singes the old roots
before boats rise from underground;
where seeds now drown
in the red-rushed dirt of oblivion
The bones of the buried found
haunt forever those lost in the victory
amongst the deadly bloom together
Bombs And Bread – 23rd December 2024
Can you name even one of the dead?
Whilst dropping both bombs and bread
You defend these actions instead
And defiantly nodding your head
But killing kids is not self-defence
Spreading peace through violence
This is no place for indifference
This is no time for your silence
Since when has questioning charred corpses
Been more offensive than actual charred corpses?
Today I’m feeling:
Tired and dizzy, especially after exercise. I didn’t sleep well last night and woke up tired. At school now and feel a little out of it.
Amy woke up coughing and saying she is sick, so perhaps I have something coming on, too.
I felt a bit more with it by the afternoon but also with a blocked nose. I’m looking forward to getting home.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s idea of getting mala for dinner in an effort to blow away any potential lurgy. Not sure if it will work but it was deliciously hot and spicy anyway.
The best thing about today was:
There’s a good feeling around school as next week is a holiday. Students are happy and playful and don’t seem to mind doing some work too.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Watching George turn up an hour late to his class today. Most of his students had already disappeared by then anyway.
It is annoying to watch but I’m trying to put it out of my mind.
Christmas In Gaza – 18th December 2024
Love and peace to all men
Your silent night, broken again
Tidings of comfort and joy
Burst wide open as bombs deploy
A Christmas, warm and bright
Lit by a white phosphorus light
Celebrating the birth of hope
Where none is found under microscope
The platitudes of seasonal cheer
Have lost all their meaning here
Peace unto you, my brother
“All I want for Christmas is my mother”
Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – holiday anxieties
Today I’m feeling:
Good, once I got moving. Since a recent iPhone update, my alarm only seems to vibrate, no light and no volume. Usually, it’s enough to wake me but this morning Amy heard it vibrating and wearily shouted at me to get up! I guess I was tired!
As I’d been waking up before my alarm for the last week or so, my brain was probably thinking that it couldn’t be time to get up yet.
Some tough exercise this morning and in my half awake state I struggled keeping my balance at times. The positive effects from it have carried me through, though and I feel good.
Health:
Physical: 8
Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
Dutchie sending me the photos that I asked him for, which he took this morning. As we were waiting for the flag ceremony, we were talking about fashion, and Achang showed up wearing a denim jacket. I told them that denim jackets are kind of a 70s/80s style for me and not really in fashion.
I asked him if I could try it on and he let me whilst Dutchie took some pictures. I said that it’s a little too big for Achang and he told me that it actually belongs to his sister.
I thought I looked quite good in it.
The best thing about today was:
Soldiering through a slow workday, where only having to work three hours feels quite tiring, as there is too much downtime. I managed to stick it out until clock-out time by sitting in the cafe. I saw lots of my students walk by outside and Noah was excited to tell me that she and Lin have been chosen to help with the visiting overseas students next month.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Recently, I have been less interested in reading poetry. I think I have been overwhelmed with so much to read on prompt blogs and it’s burned me out. It always feels like a chore to analyse someone else’s work in the hope that they return the favour. It’s the ‘like-for-like’ mentality of social media.
Of course, I want my work to be noticed. I think some of it is good and worthy. But to trawl through another 40 poems about the seasons or the moon is a burden I’m getting tired of.
I need to refine my search a bit and perhaps find new places to submit my work where it might get some more exposure. Looking around, though, there are a million poets of all shapes and flavours, all looking for the same thing. I’ll just keep on writing anyway and do appreciate the people who do take the time and interest to read and respond.
Something I learned today?
In an odd coincidence, whilst I was talking with my grade 12s today, Alyn hung up a phone call from a name I recognised as a Facebook friend of mine but I had recently been wondering who it was, as they were using a different name.
She told me that it was her brother and that made me even more curious. It turns out that her brother is my old grade 9 student Achang!
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I received a message back from Anchan this morning, just stating that she is unhappy and I wasn’t really able to offer her any consolation. I reminded her that she told me that her aunt was coming in the next couple of days and that she was hoping for things to get better. I haven’t heard back again, though.
This Is Not Disneyland – 3rd December 2024
One person’s Thanksgiving
Is often another’s mourning
We cannot turn back time
To present ourselves a warning
A promise to be kept
And treaties not to be broken
Communities of peace
Only words of love are spoken
Thank and pray to your gods
Whether the land or in the air
The family together
Brings their humanity to bear
Would we turn back the time
To share the freedom with others?
Give up some pumpkin pie
For all our sisters and brothers?
Shared with Reena’s Xploration Challenge #358 – How would you like to celebrate Thanksgiving?
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good, though I got a bit tired after walking around a lot for the parade in the morning and then around the sports field later when it became stinky hot and everyone was complaining and wanted to go home.
It was fun though but I left at one pm ready to relax at home!
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Gina and Lin. I lent them my umbrella as they were getting hot standing around in the sun. I figured that I would catch up with them again before they started moving the parade.
Unfortunately, by the time I got to the end of the line they were already arriving in the stadium. When I caught up with them they told me that Kru Tan had taken the umbrella but now we didn’t know where she was.
I looked around for a while but then told Gina and Lin that I would be in the cafe and they could call me when they had it again.
A little later, they called me and said they were outside the cafe with the umbrella and I thanked them for returning it for me, though they now had to walk back to the stadium again without it!
The best thing about today was:
Taking photos of all my students as they waited in the parade. Later, I enjoyed sending the photos out to all of them.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
After getting home, I went to my room to play guitar but suddenly felt a drop in energy, so I stopped after about ten minutes. I came back inside and, after a while, felt like perhaps I had mild sunstroke.
I even closed my eyes for a little while and was about to drop into a deep sleep when Amy shouted me awake as I hadn’t eaten yet. I felt like I could just go to bed and sleep until tomorrow but I’m glad I didn’t in the end.
Hopefully, I will sleep well tonight.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
Augus told me that there was a handsome boy sitting under the trees, so I went over and got his Instagram for her! She was happily shocked at this. Later, though, she sent me pictures from his Instagram of the boy and his girlfriend.
I tried to help students stay cool in the shade of my umbrella when I had it or just in the shade of my body otherwise. Even though it’s winter, the sun is still intense when you stand out in the open.
Screaming Seagulls – 28th November 2024
I lost my mother
When the screaming seagulls fell
Our house now a mausoleum
–
Rebuilding a life
A family of my own
Will be my only revenge
This mondo shared with #TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge: Silver Linings. Image found at Palestine Will Be Free Substack
6th Dec 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #206 – everybody scream
Today I’m feeling:
Surprisingly good. I slept ok until my dream, which was disembarking from an airplane and then searching for a bathroom and never managing to find one.
I was approaching consciousness and wondering what time it was and whether to get up to pee. I decided to look at my phone and it was only 4 minutes until my alarm, so I got up and took advantage of the extra few minutes with my exercise and hanging.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
An unexpected windfall.
Last year, sick of my student Kwang never having a working phone when I was constantly having students utilise their phones in class, I brought in my old Samsung for her to use. To be honest, I never really expected it to come back, knowing what Kwang is like.
At the end of last semester, I kept asking her to bring the phone back but she always had some excuse about it. I asked Kru Karn to ask her parents and grandparents about it too, but all to no avail.
Due to her poor performance in school, Kwang was due to switch schools for this semester but needed all the paperwork sorted at our school first. Kru Karn used my phone as a hold over her being able to go to a new school, asking her to either return the phone or pay for it. I have no idea how much it was worth and just came up with 6000 baht off the top of my head.
Kwang’s mum asked for a discount to 5000 baht, to which I readily agreed, still not expecting anything to come of it, but this morning suddenly, I was 5000 baht richer!
I have no idea what ever happened to the phone, my guess is that either Kwang or her mum sold it already, maybe for more than I was asking. I don’t care, it doesn’t matter.
I liked Kwang, though she was obviously fucked up by her family situation. She has chosen a path that I tried to steer her away from but I hope that one day she will be mature enough to figure her way back, as she is smart, too.
As I told Kru Karn, I tried my best for her.
The best thing about today was:
Coming across a great lesson for my grade 8 classes today. It started with writing out a simple text with some highlighted words and those words they had to translate. This is usually the first two parts of a reading class that I will do, usually followed by asking them to read for me and answer some comprehension questions.
As this was a very simple text and they had seen it before with Kru NumNim last semester, I thought to try something different.
They had 11 highlighted words or phrases, which they could understand because they had already translated them. Then I asked them to write a sentence for each word but, the first sentence must be three words long, the second sentence four words long and so on.
This task got everyone settled down into figuring out proper sentences with this restriction. I advised them that they could use Google Translate (or ChatGPT) to help but some had a go at it by themselves.
As a follow-up to this, I will take their phones from them tomorrow and ask them to do the task again.
These two classes are usually stressful for me but this lesson really worked well. These kinds of lessons come along every now and then and I think I have to utilise the idea a few more times in the semester.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I strained my lower back a little bit today but it was my own fault. In my morning exercise, I did Swimmer-Superman, which engages the lower back and the strain feels nice.
In the afternoon, I wandered into monkey Sarah’s class and she came and played with me. To playfully punish her, I picked her up around the waist and turned her upside down. She screamed and laughed and I let her down again.
A few minutes later, I felt a twinge in my lower back. I asked her how much she weighed, as she is pretty skinny and probably not even 5 feet tall. She said that she was 48kg, which is more than some of her friends who are taller than her.
Anyway, I will be more careful about who I pick up and play with next time!
Something I learned today?
(See above!)
Thomas On The Fence – 26th October 2024
I don’t know what I believe anymore
The fence gets more comfortable every day
The Holocaust, massacres and genocides
Did they really happen that way?
Is it all a facade, my own Truman Show?
Is the grass actually greener over there?
To discover my world was built on lies
I wish to remain blissfully unaware
Now reality assaults me at every turn
Left guilty and helpless at the pain
Paralysed by the bystander syndrome
The fence is where I choose to remain
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good, though not enough sleep as we were up and in a rush to get to Chiang Mai.
Almost 1pm and only now getting my first coffee! I’m a little tired and thirsty and it’s sticky hot.
(Later) The coffee and Kao Soi lunch (not a good taste combo) kicked my ass and I felt great as we drove around and then up to the Doi Suthep temple, where we took photos and wandered around.
After that, though we all felt heat-tired and we drove to our hotel for a quick air-conditioned break before heading out to the night market.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
A safe journey from home to Chiang Mai despite all the roadworks and dodgy roads. Amy treated Almy to a wash just after we picked up her old flatmate, Crisia, from the airport.
The best thing about today was:
Feeling happy and playful with Amy after the coffee kick and then driving up the mountain to get a view all across Chiang Mai.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Amy complained and whined a lot as we were driving this morning and it was just about things that she had no control over, so I didn’t feel inclined to say anything and just felt amused.
Something I learned today?
Lanna means ‘a million farms’. This made me realise that it is a good way to remember that ‘lan’ is the word for million (not that I have much use for this word!)
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I’m sorry to the lady who tried to help me at Tops with the self-serve machine. There were so many steps to be able to pay by QR code and it was only 36 baht, that I decided not to bother buying anything. I wasn’t upset or anything but Amy said that I should at least say ‘Thanks for helping and don’t worry about it’ to the staff. She was right.
Beaten Heart – 24th October 2024
And so it must be repeated…
…when the cat scratches at the door wanting to be let in
come, come
And so it must be repeated…
…when screeches of missiles fly overhead
run, run
And so it must be repeated…
…when Mama’s voice soothes the frayed edges
there, there
And so it must be repeated…
…when the fringe comes to the centre
win, win
And so it must be repeated…
…when the image of the devil is hailed as a hero
praise, praise
And so it must be repeated…
…when all the signs of dying breaths disappear
gone, gone
And so it must be repeated…
…when the locks are bolted after sunset
tight, tight
And so it must be repeated…
…when shiny ribbons emerge from the dust
curiouser and curiouser
And so it must be repeated…
…when the tide rises to overwhelm the bloodied sands
rush, rush
And so it must be repeated…
…when the swarm of flies search for new flesh
buzz buzz
And so it must be repeated…
…when the ghoulish fiends build castles on the haunted beach
higher and higher
And so it must be repeated…
…when the night breaks so does the heart
beat
beat
beat
Shared with dVerse Poetics: Of Mantras, Repetita Juvant and The Sunday Whirl Wordle 676 and inspired by this post at Sunra Rainz
Today I’m feeling:
I got myself up and running at 6.10 having already woken up a little earlier yet again!
Last night I made a little mistake as we received a message from school with our new timetables and I had a look at mine and was a little frustrated.
Firstly, I have been given 25 hours again, whilst David got 22 and George only 20! Then I noticed that I have two seven-hour days on Monday and Friday! Finally, I have been given 4 separate one-hour classes throughout the week, which annoys me as my planning is usually for 2-hour lessons. With only one hour, it will usually only end up with about 30 minutes teaching time at most.
Funnily enough, one of my students Jee, messaged me saying that she was disappointed that I would only teach her for two hours a week again and I mentioned that I was frustrated too, for the reasons above. She replied, ‘That’s not fair!’ But I said to her, ‘Yeah, but it will likely change anyway,’ and considered that things are not set in stone just yet.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t stop my brain working overtime for a while as I was trying to sleep and I was playing out scenarios about what to do and say.
By morning, though, I had let it all go and just figured to get on with things and accept them. For now, at least.
After a long, happy, hot day, I was starting to feel flaky as I was driving home. I could easily have slept until tomorrow even though it was only 2.30 pm, but I knew that wasn’t going to be possible.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
Baitoey, an old student of mine who I will teach again this semester, who helped me get things sorted to create a new LINE group for her class. This class has 48 students and is certainly going to be a challenge to keep them all engaged.
Kru Ning also helped me out, as she is the homeroom teacher for them, too. It’s good to have a reasonably competent ally when dealing with a big class like this.
The best thing about today was:
Catching up with all the students again. I got so wrapped up in talking with them that I didn’t even make it to my first coffee until after 10 am!
They all seemed happy to be back at school again and to see their friends. I was certainly happy as kids came to talk and play all throughout the day.
Kwang also turned up to see her friends before she switched schools. I gave her a hug and told her that I would miss her. She said ‘how much’ and I told her, just a little bit.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Amy told me in the morning that Nong Oh’s mum passed away today and that she wants to go and help at the temple today and tomorrow. This means there’s little chance of rest for me before we do the three-hour drive to Chiang Mai on Saturday morning.
Our third funeral this month. What can we do? I am grateful to still be alive and healthy to have these problems.
Something I learned today?
I found out that sports day is at the end of November, for a couple of days and for most of the month leading up to it, we will have 50-minute periods instead of our usual one hour.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
Driving Amy and Baew to the temple after school this evening. There’s not much that I can do to help here, so I was quite relieved when Amy suggested I bring a book.
1994ever 