Thailand, Chan rak teu

When he told her he loved her,
She knew it was coming
but she cried anyway.
The sisters looked at her, concerned
she pointed to her food
"Too spicy."
They shook their heads.
Poor farang girl
If he said it any other day
she'd quickly say it back
and with a laugh
She didn't need to tell him
this wasn't that day.

Kanokwan looks suspiciously at our wedding photo that sits on my desk. He lingers and talks about beautiful weather, begs for a study guide for the next "examination--- I told him I didn't have a study guide because I haven't even planned a test yet. He looks at the photo again and I expect a major fall out. "Teacher! I thought you were single, alone, unwed. You lying harlot!" He doesn't know what a harlot is. He gropes for words and is slightly lost. I watch him watch you--- you smiling, you drinking coffee, you with an arm slung around me . . . It was obviously too soon for personal photos on the desk or not soon enough? "Your husband?" I nod cautiously. He points and asks if we are Roman Catholic. Surprising. I tell him "kinda". Okay, I must go, he tells me. Have a good day, teacher, it was nice to meet you. Kanokwan "meets" me nearly everyday and I correct him nearly everday with "It's nice to see you." I stop holding my breath.

While I listen to my sobbing
friend talk about lost love,
my initial thought was:
It's getting late and I
must get home.
She had not found her soul
mate and it effected us all
Soul mate?
Do they still make those?
We fall "in love" a million times,
I said with conviction,
then the other person falls right out.
That was crass.
What I wanted to say,
but I was sleepy,
was that he's out there!
There's someone for everyone!
This one just wasn't for you.
I'm usually better than this, but
Soul mates?
Only through divine intervention,
pure coincidence, or tragic irony do we
find these allusive soul mates.
And when we do,
we know that our paths were
destined to overlap
we are certain that our shopping
for produce together is not only
lovely but necessary
we know that we're pieces that fit---
shit, we're not sanded to the point where
we don't cause friction when
rubbed
the wrong way---
but we fit comfortably
I could have told my
distraught friend all of this
but I was having an off day. . .
and I was content with the idea
of already finding my own
soul mate