Synkroniciti is excited to welcome writer Laurie b. Frankel, based in California, with a fascinating essay, “Angkor Wat.” Laurie takes us to Cambodia and introduces her tour guide, Poeu. Poeu divulges that, at an early age, she and a friend, starving under Cambodia’s oppressive regime, snuck into a rice field to steal food. Her friend was caught, dashed twice against a tree and killed. This shocking revelation creates a bond between the two women and opens the way for an insightful conversation about reality and myth, death and rebirth. “I hope, in some small way, by telling me she has transferred a bit of her horror, lessening it for herself, but the reality is she’s just copied it, like a cancer, making more of it in the world.” And yet, by revealing her experiences, Poeu challenges our Western worldview. There is mystery and wonder alongside brutality and privation as Poeu speaks of her young son, who believes himself to be a reincarnation of man brutally murdered. Is this possible, or perhaps an accretion of Poeu’s own experience is responsible? “My logical mind is a disappointing audience. Instead of remaining in awe of the illusion I am focused on determining the trick.” Honest about both doubt and the desire to believe, Laurie stares into the murkiness of human understanding.
Read “Angkor Wat” in our September 1st issue, “Broken,” available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Writer, video essayist, trash picker upper, canine influencer and art looover Laurie b. Frankel knows pain is the root of all comedy and is thrilled her life is so damn funny. Winner of the Walker Percy Prize in Short Fiction her pushcart-nominated work has appeared in Shenandoah, The Literary Review, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Cimarron Review, The Carolina Quarterly and New Orleans Review among others.