Jalina Mhyana
		Pains of Pilgrimage Soon I will visit Thailand with my two small daughters - For good luck a friend gave me a Thai princess ring, the ring being a tiny replica of sharp temple spires that impale gods as they float by Thailand translates to free land, free for all but the gods who wave from the temple tops like ghost flags When I wear the pointy princess ring I scratch myself by accident – minor spillings of blood where it has pierced me & I wonder how many miniature gods I’ve caught on the tip of it Each time I’m cut I imagine their invisibilities entering my body, inoculations of smaller gods to prepare me for the larger ones I’ll meet on my journey Ghosts in the Tree It’s not unusual, this vandalism of gods - religious genocide to ensure the enemy’s prostrations are prayerless And that’s why, in the ancient Thai kingdom of Ayuthaya you can still see a severed Buddha head entangled in the roots of a Banyan tree The phi ton mai, ghosts in the tree, take turns in the stone face keeping watch through its eyes for Burmese soldiers intent on killing witnesses