The Catholic-born Buddhist Recounts Visiting Angkor Wat – a poem by Lynne Kemen

The Catholic-born Buddhist Recounts Visiting Angkor Wat 

Exhausted from the long flight, we rise early. We sigh 
when we finally see the abbey. Time has stopped, 
leaving us frozen in a pocket. 

The monks go about their business. They don’t
pay attention to the tourists–even the faithful.

We each struggle in this finely-made net. This morning, 
an egg-white omelet. No begging bowl for me. 
The paper cut from my last day before leaving New York
City throbs in time with my pulse. 

I traded the God of my youth 
for Buddha, and yet believe
I should cross myself
in this sacred space.

Lynne Kemen’s full-length book of poetry, Shoes for Lucy, was published by SCE Press in 2023. Woodland Arts Editions published her chapbook, More Than a Handful, in 2020. Her work is anthologized in The Memory Palace: an ekphrastic anthology (Ekphrastic Editions, 2024), Seeing Things and Seeing Things 2 (Woodland Arts, 2020 and 2024). Lynne is President of the Board of Bright Hill Press and has served on many other not-for-profit boards. She is an Editor and Interviewer for Blue Mountain Review. She is a nominee for a Pushcart Prize (2024).