Autumn Poems from Pnom Penh

Poem 1 :  Poem At Sunset in Pnom Penh

Pity the man,
and also the woman,
who does not have the time
to see the beauty of sunset,
when life to him is all work,
and days are dull and boring,
and the endless nights bring moments
of dread...

Pity the man,
and also the woman,
who can not feel the joy
and peace at the sinking of the sun
into the kingdom of the sea,
but instead worry at the coming
terror of the night,
as a consequence of the sins
of yesterday...

Pity the man,
and also the woman,
who thinks of sunsets
as just ordinary times,
and can fathom
neither the meaning of the day,
nor the hue of the coming night...


Poem 2 : Live Only For Today

Yesterday,
I rented a bicycle for
two US dollars a day,
and biked around Pnom Penh...

I visited the parks along the Mekong River,
and rested under the ever green trees,
I biked through avenues
and streets of this old city,
shattered by the horrors of the past,
but alive again!!!
I went around the Royal Palace
where the new king Ranaridh resides,
the younger son of Norodom and Monique.
and marvelled as its unique magnificence...

Yesterday,
I saw the laughters of the Khmers,
victims of Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary,
helpless souls under the  terrifying shadow
of Marx and Lenin,
and the Chinese dictator named Mao...
Oh! how they laughed at the start of
celebration of the "Water Festival",
as the boatmen gird for the water race,
hoping to win through gut and grace...

Yesterday,
I visited the Royal Institute of Foreign Languages,
and the Cambodian Institute of Technology,
with the purpose of sharing my faith in Christ
to the students...
And I met several of them,
and they were eager to know more
and to correspond...

Yesterday,
it rained...
but I thought the rain would also pass,
like before,
for  it does and will not rain always...
And true,
after an hour or two,
the sun showed its splendour again,
and the temporal dark clouds are gone with the rain...

Yesterday is a day gone,
and we can not change what was.
The Master of the Storm
taught us
to focus on life
just for today,
and not to brood on the failures
and flaws of yesterday,
or worry about what tomorrow will bring forth.
Let us live then the best of life
today...


Poem 3 :  I Think of You
( A Poem for June)

I think of you
there in Mui Ne
as I beheld the sinking sun...

I think of you
there in Saigon
as I walked the streets
when the day was gone...

I think of you
here in Pnom Penh
as the ephemeral hours run...

I think of you...always.


NORBERT L. MERCADO
Pnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia
November 20,2010, 1:35 PM