Adam's father, always a good provider, has supplied a childhood of unblemished lawns perfumed by Sunday barbecues, catsup, and sweet relish - the only admission of change the height marks on the kitchen door and a progression of vehicles - carriage to car. Adam, at twenty-two, wanders East where monks robed yellow as October leaves drift the dawn streets with their begging bowls and human stinks are quick as rats in the alleys. Homesick for white bread, he strums "I Am a Rock" in Bangkok bars, buys rice from the dark hands of street vendors. Adam's father sits in the garden, evening air thick with honeysuckle under the gentle shuffle of maple leaves, and reads letters from Bangkok, Rangoon, Dhaka in which his son writes, "Seeing hunger, I know I am hungry. Perhaps what I have always wanted is to want." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IMAGINARY ANCESTORS: THE GIRAFFE WOMAN OF BURMA by MADELINE DEFREES THE PASSING OF THE EX-SLAVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE BOOK OF STONES AND LILIES by AMY LOWELL CHRISTMAS AT INDIAN POINT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DOMESDAY BOOK: MRS. MURRAY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALONZO CHURCHILL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |