Her Home is his Homage

My poem pick of the week :

Pimone Triplett's ~ "To My Cousin in Bangkok, Age 16."  ~

Why? Maybe because it made me think of my 91 year old grandmother and what will happen to her home when she passes. I also imagine my nephews walking or biking home to play video games before their chores in defying my sister or their mother's demands.

In response to this week's theme: How is the idea of family different than what we know in this poem? Family in this poem includes ancestors and their wishes or requests and how those play out in our daily lives.  How is homage not as dangerous as we think? Because homage in this poem doesn't have to be a trip on the airplane...it can be a trip on the page, one that even gives us a space for reflection, healing and silence.  I think that is how this poem answers this week's topics best.

The first line of the first stanza: "What space is for, to the boy peddling" sets us up for what's to come in this poem. We see the boy on a journey through smoke, traffic, encampments and all,  just to get home and clean for his dead mother. How long do you uphold the requests or wishes of deceased relatives?

One may say it depends on how long your love of tradition, heritage or guilt last? What lingers most about this poem for me is also it's use of space. There's a line break between two long stanzas and then there's the introduction of white space. Giving the reader a chance to breathe before the words "behind him, you see, the one time he didn't." A line that suggests that what is truly haunting the boy is the past, his mistakes and his mother. What's also interesting is this poem invites the reader to consider what the living do with the space, rooms and homes that are left behind. Do they live in them or do they go "out to tend what little remains."  

In the last line "his hands, almost a man's, into the blue" could be very symbolic. I'm still unsure of what's so special about the blue bowl though.  I can't wait to hear other people's interpretation of what filling it up with water represents or why we're reminded that his hands are still growing?   Who among us takes the time these days to dust off our own belongings or tribute those who uphold legacy and cherish the gifts of our mothers or ancestors in a poem? 

I like to propose that it could be guilt and a sense of obligation that also produced or triggered this poem. Does one write poems for distant cousins or cousins across seas in hopes that it will give them comfort or does one also seek to be a better family member themselves? These were the questions or thoughts that came to mind for me after reading and rereading this poem.

As I think it is a poem that plunges in the bucket of truth to find what is the role of family and who is truly keeping alive "the dreams of the dead. Each night."