A Poem About a Once in a Lifetime Travel Moment

Tad Lo, Laos

When I was travelling in Laos, I experienced so many magical moments. However, this travel moment in particular really stuck with me, and I think part of the reason is that I don’t have any photos or videos of it. Of course, taking photos of special moments is an absolutely wonderful way to look back on them and to share them, in some small way, with others. But, there can also be something beautiful about not having any pictures, so that the memories are held only in your heart and mind. I explore this idea in this poem about a special moment I experienced while watching a waterfall in Tad Lo, Laos.

In Laos

It felt like there must have been a million dragonflies. Of course, it was
probably only a hundred or two, but at some point the actual number
stops mattering and instead the mattering belongs to the feeling
the magnitude creates. There were enough of them to pause
time. So many I felt like they must have been with me

forever. It wasn’t that they took my breath away
but more like they gave it back to me. The air felt green
on my lungs, the water plunging down from the cliff above
collided into the flood in front of us, joined the river rushing by,
powerfully and unrelenting, inexplicably oblivious to the fantasy

novel overhead. Almost impossible to behold, we had wandered
into another realm. There on our stone haven at the edge
of a waterfall. Or the edge of the world. The cold water
twirling around our feet, my body pressing against
the rock island. The gentle pulse in his

arm squeezed between me and the hard
to believe reality of where we were. With a dance
choreographed above us. There are two ways to watch
them. You can watch them all at once, a single entity made up
of a swarm of cells, altering in time but not moving

too far or too fast. A cloud filling the sky. Or you
can watch just one, track its progress
as it weaves, twists, and turns
its way through the crowd. Dipping
and diving to avoid the others, sometimes not

until seconds before the would-have-been impact.
Sometimes flying in the same loop again and again. Sometimes
flying to the other end of the horde. Everything else fades
out of existence. There is only us and our rock island
turned entire universe, and the water,

and the dragonflies. There are
no cameras, no phones, no other people.
We have no pictures, no videos, no proof. We have
only our memories, distorted by time and the act of remembering.
I am too afraid to ask him for his, in case it makes mine any less real.

So I don’t. I lock the moment away in a safe made of paper, ink
and doubts. Knowing that one day even my words will
dissolve into this life, leaving behind a secret
for the universe alone
to remember.

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More Poems About Travel Moments

• A Heartwarming Travel Poem About Guatemala is a poem about a travel moment I had in Flores Guatemala that gave me some insight about some of the cultural differences between Guatemala and North America.
• Ocean Meditation explores all the things you can learn from the ocean and the feelings they bring up.
• Or check out more of my poetry here!