A silly poem about being a development worker in Lao

Asasamak (The Volunteer)

The sun is a broken embryonic egg yoke
Dripping through a dirty coffee sock filter sky
Dust and smoke combine to form nuclear halitosis and hellenic BO
choking & blinding like a closet full of second hand smoke from cheap third world cigarettes
Lao PDR (Post unDergraduate Reality)
An ashtray lined with palm trees
Funny that I feel so comfortable here
Or perhaps not
I am a volunteer after all

Turtles carrying birds & boys w/ stinky armpits
Tigers w/ dirty asses heckled by smart-ass monkeys
Laoation mythology
Larium dreams
Avoiding foreigners while seeking foreign familiarity
Shields, guards, & blinkers worn down to the point I can loose myself in senseless moments
& not be concerned with what might happen next

But something will happen next:
A bloated ear sniffing gasoline
Getting lost & loosing myself at the market
Beerlao & ladyboys on the banks of the Namkong
Endless packs of diseased dogs snapping at my heals
Unexpected, unsolicited homoerotic encounters on the backs of motor scooters
Or allowing myself to feel smitten, highschoolish
& kissing like it’s 3:30pm on a Friday & the ‘rents aren’t due home for another 30 minutes
Cow tail, bile dip, tripe laced beer snacks & Lao Lao drunken tuk tuk drivers
Puking my guts out from dehydration & heat stroke
Putting out grass fires
& watching your expectations go up in the smoke of moments so embarrassing you feel like a balloon deflating on the business end of drunken insensitivity
a bursting of the bubble
a flatulent disaster
a whoopee cushion cultural holocaust
& every flick of movement in the corner of my eye is a spider, a cockroach, a snake, or mosquito w/ malicious intent
I give up
take a cold shower
Lie on the bed naked under the fan
a heap of crumpled cooperant

Later, I will get up, get dressed
& reapply a carcinogelicious blend of deet & sun block like I’m basting a turkey
But for now, Lao can have me anyway she wants
I submit
I volunteer myself

-For Stephanie, Kim, Chad and volunteers everywhere