Another Waste …Another Smile
Janpha Thadphoothon
I woke up and picked up a piece of paper, lying on the floor, half-used, ready to be put down.
(I was about to scraped and throw it away to a trashcan as
another waste, another act of destroying the earth.)
But my thought was faster and my hands were too close to a pen lying on the table.
I quickly jotted down a few words and a flow of my long lost muse took control of me.
I began writing and began it with “I” and followed the rest with other signs and symbols, a stockpile of signs in my head.
I began to feel relieved, elated, lucky to have been taught, or rather educated myself to write a few poems in English.
Many faces popped up, words populated, and stories after stories and within stories emerged.
Memories somehow became alive and took over the present,
transcending me to another realm of reality.
I put aside the ‘work’ and began wasting my time by giving life to the words, recalling them, choosing them, and giving them a chance to greet and exist in the world as I know it.
The words I have created have washed my mind, organizing its
many scattering signs, systematizing them, giving them strength and
signification.
I thanked the half-dead paper with a smile.
17 May 2014
Pak Kred, Nonthaburi, Thailand
