12-29-2016, 05:01 AM
"Three Female Ghosts of Thailand" is quite interesting to read because it is composed of three parts. I'm completely unfamiliar with these three spirits of Thailand folklore, resulting in me conducting brief research. As an outsider, I enjoyed that this is a short summary of the ghosts which lead me to look into the legends more. Some readers may think differently, however I feel anyone can enjoy this piece because the content is universal and graphic in detail, so an outsider like me can grasp the main idea of each spirit.
I noticed that this piece makes use of the conditional "will" heavily, which works. From what I've gathered from your writing here and my small research, each of the three spirits act only from the actions of living and using "will" over and over as a conditional tense for the spirits hits this notion hard.
On a final note, the italicized font is interesting but I don't know if it's a stylistic choice with an inherent meaning or just style of font you preferably used.
I noticed that this piece makes use of the conditional "will" heavily, which works. From what I've gathered from your writing here and my small research, each of the three spirits act only from the actions of living and using "will" over and over as a conditional tense for the spirits hits this notion hard.
On a final note, the italicized font is interesting but I don't know if it's a stylistic choice with an inherent meaning or just style of font you preferably used.
(12-10-2016, 04:58 AM)Sparkydashforth Wrote: ‘Krasue’
A woman’s head with viscera hanging down from her neck. These one line descriptions of each spirit help an outside reader imagine them
‘Where will you be tonight when the moon is shut?
Woman hater, where will you be
when the womb of your soul is shut tight?’
Krasue will chant these lines over your sleeping body.
You will be inseminated at that moment,
but that incubus will be without sex,
its arms and legs will be writhing snakes.
Krasue will keep you pregnant
until your male belly burst. (bursts)
Then she will come out of you,
and the moon will open and shine again,
but not for you.
~~~~~~~~
‘Mae Nak’
A female ghost who died at childbirth and can extend her arms.
Mae Nak loves you.
She wants to carry you in her limbs
to the birthing couch. There she will
extend her arms to the dawn.
Mae Nak loves you,
but you are a ghost to her,
she sees only an endless umbilical cord.
She believes you dangle at the end of it.
She believes that one morning
she will hear you mewing like a kitten
at her door. slant rhyme (door - cord) works well sonically
Until then she extends her arms
like a starfish at a watery reflection
of the morning star.
~~~~~~~~
'Nang Mai'
‘Lady of the Woods’, ghost-fairy related to trees. The various hard rhymes (grain - domain; appear - near; ties - lies) in this section don't work well for me since the first two sections don't rhyme. However, there may be a reason for the rhyming here that I'm just missing.
Texture and grain are her domain,
but she will appear
if you are near her spider woven eyes.
She harms none,
but she can break the ties to yourself,
break the lies you tell yourself.
She can make you see the mask,
then she will send you home
weeping.
~~~~~~~~~

