Illustration by Lay Hoon (Arty Guava)
In between ritual
comes the upkeep.
Third grandchild
in line, she climbs
the stepladder. A
ceiling lamp emits
stained tobacco
fluorescence. She
clears away broken
rice grains & tries to
decipher the patterns
they make, changes
out old water tinted
red from incense.
On the ledge, tiny
figurines stand at
right angles & never
speak. After life
comes the narrow
container. In her
heart, an empty
sutra forms like a
thread separating.
PW Jarungpiterah was raised in Australia. Of Thai-Laotian-Chinese ancestry, she is currently working on a collection of poems based on her mother’s childhood in rural Thailand amidst the Cold War. She loves embroidery, poetry, walking, and composing poems while walking. In Canada, her poetry has been published in The Puritan. She makes Toronto her home.