Cambodia
Giddy with the thrill of an unplanned holiday,
I’m in Phnom Penh with 3 uni mates I hardly know.
Just 21, with the world unfurling before us,
we head straight to the tourist attractions.
Shelf after shelf of skulls
line the book case,
and i cannot turn away
from the 10,000 eyes,
eye sockets,
trained on me.
The space so quiet
terror walks up from behind me
to gaze at the displays together with me,
and then at me.
The years telescope back to 1979
a black and white TV
playing a film
where side by side
a child toddles in a HDB flat, gurgling
before she falls into her mother's waiting arms,
while a young girl,
in the middle of a silent scream,
falls back into a pit here,
her skull extracted and displayed now on this shelf.
As I walk on through other 'attractions',
my mind is seared with the grinning skulls,
in turn accusing me
forgiving me,
holding me
still.
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