Shared with dVerse Tuesday Poetics: The Four Elements – my chosen element being earth.
You Can’t Wash It Away – 2nd March 2025
Tag: Palestine
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?
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
Watermelon – 13th December 2024
The fertile soils know nothing of humanity
As it is tilled into dust
Masses of molecules, ambivalent
To all the partitions discussed
Oblivious to gods, watermelons grow
In amongst the shouts
The squawks of the barbarian
Echo along the valley of doubts
Bring another flood to wash clean
The fields of blood
Plant the watermelon seeds
In this god-forsaken mud
Never mind the river or the sea
There’s no mountain owned
All the king’s horses and men
Will see the kings dethroned
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!)
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.
The Great Satan – 1st October 2024
Now settled in for the greatest joyful genocide
Where evil is no longer ashamed to hide
Death and mutilation a spectacle cheered
No prayers answered or conscience cleared
A playground of rubble where the children lay slain
Brothers mop up the body parts that remain
Rag-dolled and ruined by murderous intent
Fires fanned by despair of the innocent
A holy hand grenade signed and sent with a laugh
Floating ashes never find peace on this path
This fertile ground may never satisfy the beast
Once the Great Satan has been unleashed
Today I’m feeling:
Good again. Exercised and awake. The rain is back, making things a bit dark and plenty of students didn’t bother coming to school today for whatever reasons.
I cancelled my first class to allow them to finish off other work that needed completing but will still take my grade 8s this morning, carrying on a little of what we did yesterday. Not too much stress.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Chinese-made goods. I ordered a new cheap laptop bag on Temu last month and whilst it’s not as good as the one I had before, today I was very grateful to find out that it has an extra quality I wasn’t aware of. (see below)
The best thing about today was:
…well this was not the best but was the most defining moment of the day.
As I was sitting at 22 Grams this morning Amy messaged me that it was raining hard at home and a little later it was raining hard in the city too.
I didn’t think too much about it but noticed that the roads were starting to flood around the school as I went to my class, the rain fairly relentless.
After about 40 minutes I got more photos from Amy of the rain and then a message saying I THINK I NEED YOU AT HOME.
Soon after she called and was sounding hysterical as she told me that our road was flooding. I decided to leave and got back as quickly as I could which wasnt easy as the roads were inundated with water all along the way.
As I got on the highway near home, traffic was stopped and it took me a while to get through to the road that goes around the back of our house but the rice fields were already overflowing and making the road almost invisible. I decided to risk and drive through but once at the back of our house the corner was completely flooded to the bridge and impossible to get through.
I went back the way I came and back onto the highway but there was no way to get down our soi as I saw people walking up to their knees in water.
I got past the traffic lights and into Kotchapol and drove up to a dorm a little bit higher and parked the car there, walking back down to the main road where there was nothing for it except to wade through the water, through the traffic, down our soi and eventually home. It took a while as the water was moving rapidly in the opposite direction and I could feel my hip muscles tested and twinging.
Our house was fine but the rice fields were full already and the rain was still coming. Amy had moved things from the kitchen and I started moving things off the floor in my man cave. After about an hour the power went out.
I lay down for a while and the rain had thankfully stopped. I was enjoying eating but couldn’t sleep and when Amy suggested we go and check our car maybe move it, I thought it best to go before it got dark.
We hopped on the bike but got stuck in the soi before we got to the main road. I pushed the bike through until I could get it out of the water and we discussed what to do next.
I got the bike going again but it was struggling and I told Amy to go back home. I wanted to get to the car and bring my laptop home.
I made it to Baipad’s house where the bike stopped again and it took me a little while to get it going again. Eventually I made it through to the car and got my laptop and set off but I didn’t want to go back the way I came figuring that there must be an easier way back.
As I approached the hill, water from the main drainage ditch was flooding the road and a rescue truck was there in the middle of it. I decided to go for it and a guy waved me by but as I went past, unable to see anything of what I was riding on, I plunged down off the edge and into deeper water and I was suddenly up to my neck in it.
A few rescue guys came over and as my feet were on some firm ground I quickly hoisted my laptop bag up and into their arms and said I’m ok, get the bike up!
They pulled the bike back up and then me. I got set, asked for my laptop bag and pushed the bike through to the other side, much to the bemusement is gawking uni kids.
I waited a while and got the bike started again and set off looking for another way back and after a couple of flooded dead ends took the university road and made it straight back home without getting stuck again.
After getting out of my second set of soaked clothes I opened up my laptop bag and was amazed to find that it seems to be mostly waterproof and my laptop was still buzzing away when I opened it up to check. My phone all good too!
We got electricity back at 8.15 pm. Woohoo!
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
There’s some messages coming from the school about filling out a monthly report of all our classes and what we do in our free time.
I’m choosing to ignore it at this point but not sure how long that may be able to continue.
Something I learned today?
I learned that little Fino is a champion!
Another Aysenur – 9th September 2024
Shot in the head, stabbed in the back
On the wrong side of the borders
Death comes swiftly to the citizens
No longer following orders
Broken moral compasses
All are lost and left stumbling
Blind to the colour of others’ blood
Our humanity is crumbling
Two wrongs have no right
To dictate the future states
Endless repetition is all
A corrupt morality creates
Counting down the days….
Today I’m feeling:
Ok but the grey rainy skies are very dull and uninspiring, tricking me into feeling a little down.
I got back to a little exercise this morning and though I still have phlegm stuck in my throat, causing me some breathing difficulty, I don’t have any other symptoms at the moment.
Health:
Physical: 8
Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
After what I wrote on Saturday about more new releases, I decided to get involved with working with the label Flaxxist and I’m grateful that they agreed and were appreciative of my help, too.
Now, I’d better find out their actual name!
The best thing about today was:
Being a little bit unsure about my lessons today, I was happy that the grade 12 kids knuckled down to what I had set them to do and came up with good results.
In my first grade 8 class, I was still putting together a word search task as the kids came in and after they completed that, I was happily surprised that they mostly all did well in a spelling test with words they have learned throughout this semester.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Randomly talking with Kru Mai, he just happened to mention that the last week of this month is Scout Week again! So that means that we are done teaching at the end of next week!
I can’t imagine the kids being too crazy about doing Scout Week for the last week of their semester! Lots will skip it, I’m sure!
Something I learned today?
For some reason, a student whom I taught for a semester a couple of years ago popped into my head as I hadn’t seen her in our high school. But I couldn’t remember her name.
I asked Piano when I saw her but she wasn’t sure who I meant. Then I found Pat and August and they told me it was Yok and that now she is at Damrong, studying computer software.
I hope she’s doing well.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
After my last class, I left the room pretty quickly and ended up chatting with many students whom I came across. A little later, a message came through to the teacher’s group with a photo of the room, with the chairs all messed up and posters fallen from the walls. The posters keep falling off, no matter how many times they get put up, but I should’ve had the students help straighten up the chairs at least. My bad.
House Of Secrets – 8th September 2024
Cain will never stop killing his brother
There is no path to peace
Perpetually fighting one another
A house of secrets has no keys
Each morning another death repeated
Each night let the tribe increase
The human condition cannot be cheated
Until, in time, the tribe will cease
Inspired by Nick Cave’s explanation of the song Frogs and ‘let the tribe increase’ is taken from The Mob’s album of the same name.
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good again, forcing myself to get up slowly at 7.30 am. I want to try and get into the groove that I was in yesterday and get shit done!
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
The cheap McVities chocolate biscuits from the ‘blue shop’ (easier to say than Thanapiraya!).
Also to Poowanat at Heaven and Hell for paying up front for the records I sent down to him this morning.
And the lady at the post office again for patiently helping me get all my packages sent.
Also, after my successful grammar lesson on Friday, I screenshot a load of other grammar ideas to put some lessons together next week.
The best thing about today was:
Watching the Swans beat GWS in a thrilling match that was even tense for me just watching the mini-match replay.
Amy came in from the kitchen to see what was scaring the cats. It was me, clapping and whooping.
GWS led throughout the whole game and I gave it up before half time but somehow they got their shit together and got ahead with only a couple of minutes to go. Awesome start to the day (after coffee, of course).
Also, after my disappointment with my guitaring yesterday, today I bashed along with a bunch of familiar songs and felt a lot better for it.
Something I learned today?
Half a million Israelis protested today against Netanyahu’s actions against Palestine, demanding a ceasefire to get the remaining hostages back. How many were protesting the genocide of the Palestinians?
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I sent a six-month follow-up message to Earn to check in with her and see how she is doing again. I don’t see her around much at school now.
I also sent a message to Lydia since she left a couple of months ago for a new school.
The First Time – 15th August 2024
Cloth cut and gathered
Then stitched and sown
I rented the suit and tie
She made the dress her own
A true story, my first wedding. Submitted to Weekend Writing Prompt #376 – Handmade
Today I’m feeling:
A little down with a headache behind the eyes.
I didn’t sleep particularly well and woke up at one point with a disconcerting dream where I was trying to find my friends in an AFL stadium but ended up outside, around a car parking area and went through a fire exit door that led into a dank dark wide stairwell and off to the side, a cavernous tunnel dug through the concrete, dirt and rock, the pathway littered with old beer bottles. Obviously, a place for nefarious folks to gather.
As I stepped through, a dodgy youngster stepped out of the shadow, saying, ‘Well, well, what have we here? Welcome to The Pricks.’ I replied with a ‘What?’ And attempted to get back to the fire door to exit, somehow knowing and submitting to the fact that I wasn’t going to make it and my legs were as if stuck in treacle.
Unable to face my fate, I woke myself up, wondering who won the football and scared to go back to sleep.
Health:
Physical: 6
Mental: 8
Today I’m grateful for:
My old student Cake, who is in grade 10 now, is in the Science Program and aiming to be a doctor. She took me to the stand where she was demonstrating what worms are made up of and how they work.
She looks and behaves so grown up now that last Thursday, when students don’t need to wear a uniform, I mistook her for a teacher!
Also, Jet, who showed me a little about how Instagram works and Tonaor, who showed me how to follow everyone in their class.
The best thing about today was:
Watching some of my students perform a dance routine that I had seen them practising for the last few weeks. I thought that they were just doing it for fun but I was amazed at how professional they were when they were on stage today.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I arrived back at school at 10:20 to discover that today is Science Day and many of my 10:30 grade 12 class were taking part in it and those that weren’t wanted to go and watch them. Well, ok, I guess.
I didn’t know anything about this (though I do know that tomorrow is another event that disrupts my classes) but I rolled with it and went to check it out for a little while too. It was pretty fun, though I’m not sure how the sexy dancing competition fit into the theme of the event but everyone seemed to be having a good time.
After an hour, I headed back for more coffee and reading and writing ( and my final grade 8) class, asking to skip today to go to the event, but we all knew that it would be finished by then and they were just trying it on.
I took it easy with them, though and we had a fun class practising what we did yesterday, introductions and asking conversational questions and I came up with an interesting idea for them to try next week. Basically, getting each of my grade 8 classes to go and record themselves interacting with each other, having the same type of conversations. It will push them a little and will show me who is motivated.
Something I learned today?
In the Middle Ages, what we now call a hedgehog was called an urchin. That’s a fairly useless piece of information.
I also heard about a Palestinian man who went to register the birth of his three-day-old twins and came home to find that Israel had bombed the apartment where they were staying (as they had been displaced) killing the babies, their mother (who was a well-liked doctor) and grandmother.
Sickeningly, some Israeli online commenters said that they were happy to have taken away everything from this man.
This is how terrorists are made.
1994ever 