A man is a man inside a banyan climbing on temple roofs.I feel large banyans climb the walls; whole jungles flee themselves.There are men inside the banyans, men who breathe and brown in the sun and shimmer their limbs with the wind.A banyan is a man that climbs the temple walls. I am called Left-Behind. I am called Left-Behind, a starfish with a child’s head
and two limbs that point down.The banyans are my family. The banyans are orphans like me.Ta Prohm: Banyans walk around with their tentacles at night.The tremors of their fleeing: mosquitos scared the banyans who sit with their roots hanging.The men are my brothers; the men and I are orphans and mosquitos, too, orphans.The men knock from night. They knock but do not want to come in.
Parable of a Brief Ceasefire
Monica Sok
Feature Date
- May 15, 2018
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Copyright © 2018 by Monica Sok
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission
Monica Sok is a Cambodian-American poet from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Society of America, Kundiman, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the Stadler Center for Poetry. She holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University.
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