Poem taken from:

Thanks For Nothing, Hippies by Sarah Clancy

Poem of the Week

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

The Most Bombed Place On Earth by Sarah Clancy

For Martin Sharry

In Luang Prabang the lonely-planets float

in inner tubes down the same Mekong

the Pol Pot swimmers and Viet Cong did

before arriving in the birthplace of Bob Dylan

and in the twin cities Martin sang The Fields

to Laotian Karaoke and we ate sticky rice

at the Asian buffet with those we were displacing,

who loaded platefuls as if in fear of famine and

prison labour sandbagged the bursting Mississippi

while we drove their jobs to Boston Airport.

In Vientiane American tourists laughed

over French coffee at the concrete factory picture

on the currency and locals steered them clear

of the land the amputee we met in Louisburg

hadn't got around to de-mining.