Navi has disappeared
Her small patch of earth
Midst
Smoldering garbage mounds
Turned into a morass
A muddy sinkhole
By the punishing
Phnom Penh rains.
Her few possessions
Heaped moldy
Sad remnants
Of an impoverished life
Sodden
Abandoned
Like dispossessed corpses
Littering an
Abandoned battlefield.
Vainly I search
For her
Gap toothed face
Lined
Angelic face
Strain ears to hear
The cherubic chortle of her son
But Navi is gone
Round and around
The monastery complex
I wander
Carrying the
Water I have brought her
But Navi is gone
Wading through
Fetid puddles
Fecund stagnant
Breeding grounds
Of mosquito hordes
But Navi is gone
Searching each cranny
Of crumbling
Masonry that
Shelters
Begrimed denizens
Who sit vacant eyed
Staring
I plaintively
Ask
Navi?
My only answers
Indifferent shrugs
There is no answer
Why she never
Came with
Her
Shining boy
To take shelter
From the pummeling rains
Helping three people
Herself
Her adorable child
Who I had
Already begun to love
And me
I go inside the temple room
Paying respects
To Buddha
Beautifully seated
Smiling and peaceful
Offer her a prayer
But no answer do I receive
Navi has disappeared.