~

the Ping's belly is starting to swell,
and, the drizzle-promises of rains'
breath hints soon coming torrents,
but, still: not enough earth's ochre

of mountains' stolen brown topsoil,
from under Meenakhom's burning,
is swept down, this far, southward,
into Mae Nam's risen-stronger flux

Mae Phosop's fragile children wait
for the paddies to be flooded, to be
set in Mae Toranee's watery womb,
to take deeper root, climb skyward

a heart feels Lanna's eternal cycle:
is, as blessed, as new planted rice

~o:37;

these rather trivial short annotations are for friends not familiar with Thailand

Ping: Chiang Mai's main river, the flood-plain of the valley of the Ping, like other great northern Thai flood-plains, produces two crops a year of the world's best rice.

Meenakhom: March (the burning season)

Mae Nam: the Goddess of Rivers (literally: "mother water"), incarnate in all rivers
in this usage: a reference to the Ping river, which will get very brown during the real monsoon

Mae Phosop: the Goddess of Rice http://www.content4reprint.com/food-and-drinks/thai-rice-and-ceremony-of-rice-goddess.htm
"fragile children:" the young rice seedlings, not yet planted in the paddies

Mae Toranee: the Earth Mother
in this usage (poetic license): in the more ancient chthonic sense, not, specifically, in the context of the Mae Toranee's role in the (historical) Buddha's Enlightenment (paranibbana)

Lanna: northern Thailand

I wish to express my thanks to the Moderator who restored this post

~o:37;