Images of Bangkok and rural Thailand

A matter of luck
Resident's lift says 12A
​Staff lift says 13

Queueing to u-turn
Karin workers ride tailgates
Eye contact happens

Their rusted Song Taew
Our top-forty four-wheel-drive
Brown eyes, painted cheeks

Traffic lanes demand
I look into all their eyes
Nothing is exchanged

At Soi Eleven
Their demolition truck parks
​At my favorite bar

Tuk-tuk engine stalls
Chrome gates of a private soi
Orchids and blue smoke

Gridlock turns to flood Motosais who ruled peak hour
​ Clutching in white spray

Blind corner singer
Minor sevenths fall to thirds
Traffic lights keep time

Western union girls
Faces ruined by makeup
Brown eyes averted

​Rotten egg canal
Headwind slaps at tarp bulwarks
Hammering pistons

Wet day waterways
Rubber band, straw, bottle cap
Styrofoam carton

Draw the curtains tight
Flashes of the coming wet
​Children leave their beds

Roaring at the lights
Motosais with tiger ears
GoPro cameras

Dusty short cut ride
Underneath the overpass
Past the hooded cars

Dawn. A thirsty boy
Gasps into his plastic cup
Takes another gulp

Where beach rocks were dumped
Women in plaid seek oysters
Faded Red Bull Cans

The fuel tank empty
Shirt sleeves damp with salt water
Kitchen full of fruit

Greyscale closing in
Crabs regroup on tidal flats
Perpetuity

Rectangular arch
Open to the starlit gulf
​Superfluous doof

Old guy on the beach
Turtle tattooed on his back
Looking defensive

Grey green of the gulf
Brown skinned man in a pink shirt
Parasails career

Scattering of lights
Anticipating the heat
Commuters hurry

Synth and fretless bass
'Fashion invades the district'
A plastic boulder

Commuting Bangkok
At a reasonable hour
Realise the crush

Tropical winter
Shades of teak and tamarind
An insistent bird

Scrim of pastel clouds
Warning light of a red crane
Chorus of roosters

Humid afternoon
Women in dark uniforms
Improvising fans

White dividing lines
Red cranes, golden temple walls
An approaching storm

Watching through filters
Motor cyclists pass wearing
Wehrmacht coal-scuttles

Stuck on Sukhumvit
Waiting to make that u-turn
Swat a mosquito

Flooded building site
Frogs wake a wan labourer
​A load of rubbish

Eye-level sunrise
Filters through the dripping trees
Lights the shining trees

Morning bus stop wait
Trading vocabulary
With security

From the trellis roots
Crimson threads of orchid roots
Search the tepid air

On humid currents
As sunset cicadas blare
A shopping bag soars

Motosai cuts through
Gutter, pavement, carparks
His eyeballs flaming

Lottery tickets
Kitten in the hardware store
Scratches nylon spools

Street altercation
He's venting after night shift
​She's standing her ground

No relief, this breeze
Wafts up the rotten egg klong
Drives children indoors


Only in Bangkok
Six in the morning fireworks
I guess it's still dark

Sun, in saffron robes
Slips behind the scrubby ridge
Bugs on the windscreen

Sea of brake lights
Hilltop Buddha's silhouette
A reverbed kick-drum

Blare of loudspeakers
Stalls line freshly bulldozed land
Sea of pink lotus

Riding their ute tray
Middle aged workers yawn
Glare of a long road

In the rice paid
Taps wrapped in white plastic bags
Or perhaps herons

Only the tree line
Interrupts the endless view
of shining padi

Like shadow puppets
Towers loom out of the haze
City of spirits

Bright lines of the road
Mountains indigo with rain
Frame this teeming green

Way too fast to way
Passing a roadside buddha
He taps the horn twice

The filtered sun sets
On the shoulders of buildings
Warning lights appear

Disquiet of dogs
Relays from this dark alley
On to neon hell

Out of the sweat crush
Foreigners with bright faces
climb 
Up to the sky train

Bangkok Loi Krathong
Windows wide to urban hush
Candles in the sky

November Koel
Children gather sticks amidst
Clouds of dragonflies

Outlines softening
Sky like a backlit tablet
A roll of thunder

Shaded alleyways 
Condiments placed carefully
On well worn tables

Wet season sunset
Alchemists take to the skies
Their triumph short-lived

Geometric blocks
Metallic with reflections
Of electric sky

​Rugby bar. Old men
Full of bitterness and beer
​Watch young me struggle

Taxi drivers rest
Rusting corrugated rooves
​Satellite dishes

Tai Chi in the park
Reaching through ancient patterns
Till the mall opens

​Roar of wild creatures
In artificial jungles
Strong smell of waffles

Eleven o'clock
Stopping by the noodle cart
Winne-the-thai-pooh

Automotive parts
Stashed below the overpass
Stray dogs stare me down
​
Incongruity
Sunrise over skyscrapers
Crowing of roosters

Tropical sunrise 
The same approximate time
A subtle solstice

​Late night cityscape
Aircraft warning lights transmit
Uncrackable codes

While you were sleeping
Yesterday's green bananas
Ripened for breakfast

Inscrutable moon
Fades as the morning for grows
Ever more opaque

With measured breath
Ripples distort lattices
of reflected trees

They all fly south
The hold crammed with Christmas gifts
The Koels remain

Churning of fan blades
Whistling of wind on a clear day
Sliding doors ajar

Cocktails and remix
All this to look at and I'm 
Playing with my phone

Rock salt cheese green tea
The Chinese duck restaurant
​With a British theme

Venus rides blue dusk
Workers caged in scaffolding
A shower of sparks

Tai Chi in the park
Reaching through ancient patterns
​Till the mall opens

Time tourist highlight
European sailors dare
​Thais to eat chillies

My son would eat me
If he could, and bananas
Weren't so plentiful

Blessing and relief
Rain will empty out the streets
Ease these aching skies

Beatbox Song Tao ride
Bamboo pentatonic swirls
​Tube screamer replies

Cinder-filtered sun
Hover, fog and filthy air
​Shake off downy sleep

Parking lot sunshine
Coca Cola with a straw
​ For the spirit house

Burmese street vendors
Aung San Suu Kyi poster waits
​Over worn benches

​(Ist thaiku)
Zoo elephant blows
Her keeper's harmonica
​Captivity blues

Squirrel on a wire​
Policeman in tight feldgrau
Sky-blue concrete wall

Under the klong bridge
The Wet hangs in this still air
Fans are improvised

Man born without feet
Pushes his plastic bucket
Into the peak hour crush

Power line jewels
Drivers sweat under orange
​Branches hanging low

Peak escalator
Backs of men in business shirts
​Geometric sweat

Dawn, at ten to six
City purged by last night's storm
Crisp as new lego

Mother in the shade
A towel laid across her eyes
He brushes her hair

Corrugated awning
Fishmonger in yellow boots
Unloads his tuk-tuk

Drops on the windscreen
Dirty concrete overpass
Dirty concrete sky

Mid conversation 
The water cooler bubbles
A startled gekko

Artificial dusk
Endless loop of eighties rock
And me in golf pants...

Passing the footbridge
Sudden cloud of fetid air
Traffic light changes

Labourers sweeping 
Blooms brought down by last night's rain
First of it in months

Tattooed man in converse
Sleeps on the peak-hour pavement
A bunch of roses

Bougainvillea
Living crimson, paper thin
​Reek of hot chrloine

Improvise ice tools
Charcoal glows in ruptured pails
White cat, mackerel

Pentatonic harp
Drives department store PA
Deep into the red

Nearby house burns down
Mae Baan blames it on fireworks
Year of the Monkey

Thundering of drums
Flurry of fleece and sequins
Gold leaf, red lantern

Thunder. The dragon
Traces geometric lore
As the young men sweat

Fireworks, flowers, smoke
Fortune to your family
​Part the horse's mane

Down at car wash
A scrawny tortoiseshell cat
A sleek yellow Porsche

​Grinning foreigners
Women behind counters smile
Through too much make-up

Shark-like grey fender
U-turning out of gridlock
Darting of mopeds

Peak hour Sukhumvit
Tourists swim against the stream
​Bottles beers in hand

Hydraulics attack
Ricochet, delay, decay
Slaps back from sheer walls
​
Pools in the red soil
Sun glints through teeming rain
​Angle grinders roar

Riding the low swell
Helmsman of the long boat tail
Averts his brown eyes

Somehow, when you're bald
Riding without a helmet
​Seems more dangerous

Weekend company
When latte ron becomes
​latte ron song 

Traffic forgotten 
I wait for the river boat
Laden with orchids

City of Angels
Everything is provided
Except what you need

The gutters brimming
Underground transit ozone
​Remember London

I became aware
As we pulled into Asok
Something was afoot

​A well chewed pork rib
Two quietly angry men
A sleeping soi dog

Chilly dawn commute
Motosai headwind whistling
'Round my 'Yule Brenner'

Friday night pay-day
Motosais probe Sukhumvit
Hoping to break through

Wet season coda
Beads of perspiration form
On my cue-call head

Bangkok Halloween
Purple sunset, lightning strikes
Nightmare traffic

Wasps raid the soda cart
Foreigner in shades eats fast
​A taxi loiters

Tiny red ants swarm
Lured by children's soiled laundry
Imported honey

Women on mopeds
Return to the glistening streets
Dogs bark at spruikers

Girl in a blue dress
Riding a red song-tao
My embarrassed smile

​Chatter of soft rain
Sweaty feet relinquish grip
On spotless teak floors

Through translucent scrim
Roaring aromatic heat
the old year ending

Welders in the rain
Thunder tearing sheet metal
Sparks. A sudden gale.

Go out on Sunday
Expecting confrontation
Find an empty road

​Chinatown Ferry
All tha's undesirable
In the Thieves Market

Back sois of Ekkamai
Drunken Germans smoking 
In the retro pub

Masseuse draws the blinds
On the hotel's marble slab
A sleeping dog lies

Drops gather on glass
Puddles rapidly forming
Between concrete slabs

Taxi drivers hunch
Their makeshift checkerboard spread
With Pepsi max caps

Past the grand hotels
Stilts of long-gone houses slant
Like decaying teeth

​Concrete wilderness 
Lone rigger climbs a white cliff
In hi-vis orange

Drizzle to downpour 
Escalating to frenzy
The frogs ecstatic

Arcade sandwich bar
Old white guys in fishing vests
​Look out wistfully

Tiny birds circling
Frantic, perhaps elated
The clouds are bursting

Squirrel on a wire
Blossoms downed by last night's rain
Our skin glistening

Air conditioning
Basement have-nots living with 
Discarded climate

They render shop fronts
Straddle bamboo scaffolding
With monkey bare feet
​
Dark day city rain
Coffees in hotel lobbies
Brushed steel, stucco plush

In crowded markets
French women chat in English
Remembering snow

Cab radio asks
Have you ever seen the rain?
Monsoon lends credence

Inscrutable moon
Fades as the morning for grows
Ever more opaque

They all fly south
The hold crammed with Christmas gifts
The Koels remain

Down on Soi Eight
Corner's a pile of rubble
Spirit house remains


Men in pink polos
Texting from the running board
Song Taew, army jeep


Orange Jerry Can
Smoko at the building site
Rusty dump truck stalls

Driver dips his toe
Into murky floodwaters
Searching for the kerb
​
Lone motorcyclist
Navigates the flooded soi
Leaving a white wake

Phar Lap in Bangkok
A curious connection
To the Melbourne Cup

Storm in the small hours
Sleeping in a dishwasher
Under a strobe light

Homesick foreigners
Watercolour images
​Vinyl tablecloth

Hotel's guitarist
Open-gear tuning heads shot
​Tunes up with pliers

Supermarket aisles
Pass the New world reds dreaming
South coast Easter rain

Late night cityscape
Aircraft warning lights transmit
​Uncrackable codes

Roar of wild creatures
In artificial jungles
​Strong smell of waffles

Hotel lobby moths
Fluttering scraps of gold leaf Swarm in shafts of light
​
Downstairs, two lean men
Haul their worn ute's daily load
Drums of wasted food

Smokers aren't alone
Out in the cold with us folks
​Hooked on Durian

Overhead fighter
Fishhook tearing through blue silk Draw back the curtain

Bamboo scaffolding
Braces frangipani boughs
​Angle grinders howl

High society
Single origin coffee
​Nineties powerfills

Sleek Vespa, idling
Slick lighting, faulty wiring
​Soft bossa nova

Condominiums
Offer dizzying relief
​From sweaty mayhem






​

​

Condensation drips
Fender of an open truck
Twelve white sacks, three men

Flowering cactus
raindrops bursting on the road
Heavy metal frogs

Whir of cycle gears
Guards in berets and red lanyards
An announcement

Rust on painted stairs
Fallen gourds of Pong Pong tree
A butterfly's wing

In the shelter of 
replanted boardwalk mangroves
The temperature drops

Sun clears the building
Widening this patch of light 
On rippling blue tiles

Ripple glass canal
Green as a general's fatigues
Shopping bag of eggs

Storm water outfall
Commuters ready their change
Street omelettes sizzle

Plastic rice buckets
Workers in blue polo shirts
Squat between puddles

Circling of dark birds
Whirring of hurried pedals
Sudden flap of flags

Through-the-walls 'thunk'
Neighbour's water pipe shuts off
Venetians jangle

Flowering cactus
Raindrops bursting on the road
Heavy metal frogs

Fluorescent light tubes
Cook dust behind curtains
Upstairs at Joe Joe's


Crossing the river
Look briefly from your feed
Watch the drifting lights

Loners with smartphones
Slouch or hunch on plastic stools
Waiting for noodles

Filtered cityscape
Dusting of blue steel chalk
A distant rumble

After the first rains 
Mountains once obscured by smog
Rise above the cranes

Blazing holiday
Minute hands groping for noon
Security droops

Air conditioned train
Gentle chatter of women
Flurry of bright scarves

This sweat infused air
The klong reduced like Penang
Opaque and fatty

Red light counting down
Pink Corolla's boot secured
With a bungee cord

Morning barbecues
Girl with heavy eye makeup
​Walking to the rain

Sidewalk barbecues
Vines clutch at a passing bus
Digital 'Greensleves'

Young woman running
Her loose shoes slap the pavement
Vendors look askance

Dawn, a threat of rain
Orange robes by the vendors
Lights of a tuk-tuk

Steering with one hand
She cycles to the goods lift
Sky-blue umbrella

Incandescent bulbs
Mounted in reused plumbing
Good place for coffee

Down the wrought iron stair
Pentantonic mania
Black tea syrup gin

Their burnt out building
In the first stage of repair
Under shade cloth shrouds

Seventeen degrees
Expatriates pack jackets
Almost wear them

Petals fall and swirl
Crimson Bougainvillea
Twenty white storeys

Sushi restaurant
Vendor sharpens pocket knives
Easter island heads

Couple with bleached hair
New orange bluetooth headphones
Matching carry-on

Woman with black roots
Rests her cup on his shoulder
As he kicks the flint

Here's a Christmas tree
Featuring polystyrene
Model of stonehenge

​Slip through the gridlock
Set face of a policeman
Cloud over the sun

The gutters bone dry
Bloated body of a frog
Already, the ants

Chinatown's red gate
Street sweepers begin their shift
Binding new bristles

Comic strip buildings
Dark against wet season dusk
​Warm lights coming on

Men in rusty trucks
Selling lychees by the bunch
Kisses in the rain

Clear light over gardens
Remembering cold mornings
In some other town

Tourist coach backs up
Catches hotel power lines
Porters lift the wire

Reception fishpond
Turtles tear fins from carp
They drift, lost, dying
​
Idling in traffic
Chokhold of necessity
Throbbing of desire

Intersection crush
Dissonant trajectories
Roar as the lights change
​
​They wear matching shirst
She poses,using his arm
As a selfie stick
​
​Incandescent lamps
Scattered gold of cotton trees
Crack another beer

Workers in his vis
Fan a smoking barbecue
Monks come seeking alms

Middle aged loner
Skips ahead of black ski cats
Taking no chances
​
​With a whistle blast
Sweet crepes for the drivers come
Shoulder to the yoke

Tissue to her lip
Beating her thigh with her wrist
She haunts the pavement

Breeze brings soothing rain
Men pruning the mango trees
A nervous black cat

Working family
Scrubs rust from tennis court fence
​With emery cloth

Tarpaulin awnings
Heavy with the sudden rain
Once more welcome shade

Chiang Mai

Hotel cleaning maid
Riding her boyfriend's Vespa
Flashes a shy smile

Tropical storm strikes
Workers caught in scaffolding
Grip their power tools

Fusion restaurant
Farang aid workers gin cao
Switching languages

The gutters sparkle
First breath of the wet season
Brings overnight rain

Our favorite local
Shame the landlord's selling up
To build a condo

The weather apps say 'no' 
But my tingling skin says 'rain'
'Wash my city clean

Burning forest fires
​Coloring the waning moon
​Walk home in silence'

There's no bad weather
Like Promethean toxins
We cower indoors

Walking in the smog
The kid up ahead is smoking
And why the hell not

Under a low roof
Wishing each ambient sound
Was approaching rain

Incredulously
We make our way up Nimmanhaemin
In cold wind and rain

Air conditioned rooms
Look out on a cloudy day
Imagining winter

The backstreets teeming
A welcome breeze whispering
Of lychees and rain

Put on long trousers
In deference to Buddha
And the coming rain

The pavement searing
Stem of your pink umbrella
Cool against my skin

Cinders of lost sun
Smouldering through distant trees
Elsewhere, day begins

​Throbbing of engines
​Squealing go rusty fittings
Crossing the bright grey

​In the murky mauve
Luminous fishing boat lights
Mark the horizon

Sunset is lost in 
Overdone special effects 
Shot on VHS

Woman in high heels
Carries and empty birdcage
To her motosai

Squeaking of wet shoes
Water droplets play mine craft
On the bus windshield

Running in tall grass
Heavy with abundant seed
Pause to scratch our legs

Upcountry virus
Diverting intricate flows
Of cascading care

Arc lights on the site
Throw shapes of giant workers
On shade-cloth canvas

Hopeful tea light lamps
Reflect on sliding glass doors
Closed to the night rain

Motorcyclist smokes
Helmet pushed back on his head
Twisted Pericles

I told my Mae Baan
'Just make whatever tonight'
She served me choko

Up the winding stair
Of the cosmic elephant
Wearing anklet socks

Recalcitrant moon
Yellow chalk in rubber tyres
Squeak of rusty swings

The under story
Droplets on the tangled growth
Curiously blue

Soft Andaman sea
Once the long tail hits the beach
There's no time to change

Lashings of wild rain
Soi transformer goes down
Phone battery red

Motosai idling
Two men raise a shop awning
Soi dog gnaws a bone

Dusty roadside town
Fat man with a thick moustache
Ride a rocking horse 

Cinders of a lost sun
Smoldering through distant trees
Elsewhere, day begins

Arcade sandwich bar
Old white guys in fishing vests
​Look out wistfully

Green coconut shells
Gutters run with Carwash foam
​ Joggers in hot pink

Familiar pests
Scavenge by the spirit house
​Indian mynahs

Dusty plasterers
Faces swathed in bandanas
​Like Marvel villains

Glare as haze recedes
From Himalayan foothills
​A streetsweeper grins

Morning brings the fog
As these northern padi fields
​Fall to slash and burn

Scrape of the razor
Tempted to ask my barber
​To start a quartet

​


​


​


​


​


​





​


​


​



​













​

​

​
​
​













​