True Admissions; College Essays by Berkeley High Students by Nkrumah Kwame

True Admissions; College Essays by Berkeley High Students by Nkrumah Kwame

THAILAND A multi-layered world. Disabled beggars with plastic cups, a swimming pool filled with ice to celebrate New Year's Day; ghosts, Spirit Doctors, mediums, Buddhist monks. Everywhere, temples thunder their disenchanting message that this teeming world, its glamour, excitement and misery, is impermanent, not-self and suffering.

FLOWERS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

A woman looks up
from her place
among the dirt and pollution
of Silom Road and joins
her palms together in salutation.

Someone has put two one-baht coins
in her plastic cup
(without looking at her face).

One hundred yards away,
The British Club is going to cool
their swimming pool
with ice for a Polar Swim
at 11.00 a.m. on New Year's Day.
Free of Charge. Free hot mulled wine.
(There is a double crash barrier
with uniformed security guards
to protect would-be polar swimmers.)

At the Bangkok Motor Show,
an as-white-as-snow
Bugatti Veyron is A la carte,
escorted by swirling girls
in white satin evening gowns.
253 mph top speed,
turbocharged, all souped-up.
To squeeze out
all its growling sounds,
you will need
to take 165 million baht

out of your plastic cup.