BRIDGE OF THE SANGKHLABURI LAKE

ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON  THE WOODEN BRIDGE OF THE SANGKHLABURI LAKE

On this wooden bridge
of the Sangkhlaburi Lake,
I sit on a bench
made of hard wood
which the storms of years,
of decades,
have not destroyed...


Again,
I watch the golden sun
slowly sink into a mountain
beyond the lake...

In front of me
is a young woman with her four-year old daughter,
selling sweet rice in bamboo tubes
to people passing by on the bridge,
walking home to their villages
on both sides of the lake.


She silently sat
on the wooden path
with her daughter beside her,
and passersby sometimes
took photos of her child...

Mother and child,
selling sweetened rice
in bamboo tubes
here on the  wooden bridge of the Sangkhlaburi Lake,
as tourists from Europe
took photos of the calm water
which motor boats ply...

Mother and child
in front of me,
as I sit on this hard wood bench...
It is a touching scene
as they sell sweetened rice
 in bamboo tubes
for a living,
on top of this bridge
of Sangkhlaburi Lake...

I bought two tubes
of sweetened rice,
and relished
 the aroma and sweetness
of their produce...

Mother and child...
O, what a love they show
to strangers like me
on this wooden bridge
which connects the hill from one side of the lake,
to another hill on the other side...

The golden sun 
has sunk again into the mountain
beyond the lake,
and here I am,
a stranger in this land,
still seated,
and awed by the love of a mother
to her  four-year old child.

Her hand gave gentle strokes
to her daughter's hairs,
as she sells sweetened rice
in bamboo tubes,
on top of the wooden bridge where I am seated
on a hard wood bench,
here where the gentle wind caresses the water
of Sangkhlaburi Lake.


NORBERTO L. MERCADO
Sunday, March 18,2012
6:29 P.M.

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