The sky was a warm shroud, heavy and still,
The sun aimed for our heads like a heat-seeking missile.
On the lilting boat to James Bond Island, we moved through the emerald green,
In a windless state, caught between the endlessness of the scene.
Two mossy giants rose like guards as we neared the island.
Hiding millions of years of limestone.
Heat, humidity, beauty; the sharp, biting rays.
A canoe ride under jagged rocks in a sweltering haze.
The boat ride back invited a drowsy, heavy sleep.
The hotel pool beckoned; I plunged into the chlorine water,
thankful for the setting sun.
Unaware of the strange transformation that had already begun.
Back in the sanctuary of the room, my face began to shift, Mimicking the landscape I had left, a strange, tectonic gift.
The Left Cheek: It developed a sudden, soaring ambition,
To reach my eyebrows was its newfound, soaring mission.
While The Right Cheek stayed humble,
true to the face I grew up to see.
Then I was introduced to the “Universal Healer” of the land,
A jar of Tiger Balm was placed within my hand.
A sacred rite of velvety, menthol goodness so fine,
Under that silken, slippery mintiness, the rebellion did decline.
The cheek finally relented, descending from its high horse,
But then the eye took up the cause with a frantic, bulging force.
It pushed outward from the socket, escaping its proportion,
like organic ginger, a knobby, jagged distortion.
Protruding in every direction, it mocked the cooling balm,
For the eye was a forbidden zone, far from the minty calm.
As it swelled with tectonic energy,
I sought a different friend: The quiet antihistamine brought the bulging to an end.
In Thailand, the balm is a pulse, a scent in the humid air,
A vial in every pocket, a remedy found everywhere.
It answers the leg pain, the headache, and the bite,
Magic for the weary traveler in the middle of the night.
But if it can bring down a mountain from a human face, Can it work its magic on the heat of this sweltering place?
#NaPoWriMo – Prompt – Write a Villanelle
Pic Credit: Prachi Jain
prachi jain 