Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

I'm no poet.  But I tried to write down a few stories and this is just what came out.  Some of it rhymes.  Some of it just gives up and devolves right there – but that's what came out.  Hope you like them.  The first one is from my time with Tia, the oldest woman I could find in a Vietnamese nursing home, who started calling me "her son".  The second poem is for every kid, but mostly the kids we met on the river front in Phnom Penh.  All three poems were written here in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and the third poem details just a little of yesterday afternoon, while I was writing.  

————————————————————————————————————


Tia

Go meet a woman as old as the sun,
   A million memories now all undone
Whispers and grunts and eyes like wells
   Now hollow, brittle, empty shells
 
Go find her sitting where she’ll be
   Waiting for nothing patiently,
Lock eyes with hers and drink her all down
   And treat her like she’s the most important woman who’s ever lived.
 
      Her eyes will sing thank you, and her rubbery lips will clap with laughter, at the thought that somebody loves her just enough to hold her hand.  Trade shoes with hers and flatter her with her own reflection, saying it’s the most beautiful one you’ve ever seen.  Teach her to clap and compare your hand sizes.  Sing her a song and wait for nothing with her.  Coat the walls with her laughter.  Offer her your sucker and she’ll feed you her soup, and you can trade back and forth like you actually don’t mind it. 
 
4 feet nine inches and 84 pounds,
   That was our share of the manicured grounds,
The Kingdom of Heaven’s a sweet place to be,
   When my Asian Grandmother walks it with me

 
 

 

——————————————————————————————————-

 

Children need mothers and fathers to see,
That they are remarkably joyfully free,
Fathers to throw them      
And mothers to know them      
And good snacks to grow them      
And Jesus to show them      
 
And one day they’ll know when   
their lives are worth more than
A few coins to scrape by        
The monsters they’re raped by        
The streets that they sleep on        
The rags that they keep on        
 
But for whatever the reason
In this present season
They don’t.
Eff that.
So every child we pass that so hopelessly asks
For whatever we can give them,
I’ll give them exactly what I’ve been given.
A father who loves them no matter their actions,
Two arms that will hug them whenever they’ll ask Him,
A reason to smile, for them just to know,
That somebody cares.
 
I would give everything, if only to give them
A short glimpse of my God, who’s never not with them.
 
 

 

 ——————————————————————————————————-
 

 
The sound of six women,
From just one room over,
Casts beautiful musical discord
 
As each tries to figure
Exactly the chorus,
Of Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord
 
In helping find new life,
They’re taught how to sew here,
And sing loud with praise on their voices
 
While each one has come from
The bars or the sex scene,
With their singing my heart rejoices.