Laos, I haven't forgotten you, Tyler Bigney

I walked the narrow streets of Vientiane
sometime between May and July of 2008.
The streets were quiet, for the kids selling
pirated DVD’s. I would have bought a few
but their asking price was too high, and I
didn’t have a television.

“I hope a landmine kills you,”
they yelled after me.

There were clouds blocking
the warm sun, and beautiful girls
lost in the streets. They told me
before I came that I wasn’t allowed
to speak to them. But I spoke to them
anyway, late at night, in the dark space of
small, empty bars, where I whispered words
like beautiful and tragic
and run away with me.

Except none of that ever happened,
you see,
I’ve always been a bit of a coward,
so instead, I settled on eating pomegranates,
and timing the clouds
moving away from the sun,
anything, for a reason
to shield my eyes.