The Monk Who Would Not Ride On An Elephant

I've had just enough time to...   want to ride on an elephant

Taken in a Hindu temple that we stumbled on by accident in Termeloh, Pahang, Malaysia

To ride on an elephant 

A sultan not a mahout 

High above my subjects 

A subject of envy 

Feeling like a king 

High above all 

Till I met a monk wearing 

A smile 

Walking on bare feet 

He did not want 

To be on the beast 

I can tell 

For some reasons 

That infuriated me 

What pleasure can there be 

To ride on an elephant 

If others are not envious of me? 

So I try to steal his smile 

By fraying his skin 

Though he cried in pain 

As the lashes flew 

His spirit could not be broken 

As I could his bone 

What pleasure can there be 

If I cannot submit 

Every one to my will? 

I rode the elephant back 

To the palace 

And the rain 

Falls on me 

The elephant 

And the monk that I killed

The Young Boxers of Lumpini Stadium.

I've had just enough time to...   watch young boxers fight for their family.

Taken from the ringside in Lumpini Stadium, Bangkok of the young fighters.

“Violence is not the way to a better life.”

Try telling it to these children from the slum.

“It is not!” You insisted “The solution”.

Do you have a better one?

“But it is not right! Having children to fight!”

No it is not. But you live in a different world.

You do not know hunger. You have a roof over your head.

They do know love. Their fists look after their family.

Ironical isn’t it? Love, I mean.

Bashing the daylight out of your opponent so your family gets to eat.

They will bash you too if you get into their ring.

You know what is wrong but you do not know how to put it right.

What good may I ask, is that?

So leave this world of broken noses and bloodied lips,

So you can get some sleep,

In your world where children don’t have to fight to eat.

______

In the clearing stands a boxer

And a fighter by his trade

And he carries the reminders

Of ev'ry glove that layed him down

Or cut him till he cried out

In his anger and his shame

"I am leaving, I am leaving"

But the fighter still remains

Simon And Garfunkel The Boxer