close march

let's close march, elf said to orphan.

yes, agreed orphan, march is still a day to go such a hot furnace of yellow laos skies as farmers burn fields 

o my yes indeed, agreed elf, all this sticky humid trapped hot air mixed with flying black ashes permeates pristine air water and soil

such a beautiful mess, said orphan donning a cotton gauze multi-threaded mask to prevent malaria and dengue

what's a dengue, wondered elf, scrubbing for an open heart surgical operation in hanoi

it's the fluid relaxation of intellectual reasoning as a shaman mask proclaims, confessing to the world 

see this face

i am you

mi & mo

orphan said to elf, who's the girl with the rose?

mi. she's a black h'mong girl living in remote mountainous sapa, vietnam. she sells hand embroidered work on the street.

the street of dreams? asked orphan. more like mean life blues street, said elf.

she looks happy. 

she is. we should all be so happy.

she and mo her friend met a stranger. they played, laughed and sang together.

it was winter. they shared delicious noodle soup in the market. the girls rent a room with other kid street sellers for $20 a month. they are tough survivors.

their village is far away. like a dream.

do they go to school?

what's a school? their education is on the street. like a dream.

i love the rose.

yes, it's beautiful. everything we love dies. 

do you learn that in school? 

it's something you learn by yourself.

i see.

training wheels required

let's take the kindergarten kids to Nepal, said Elf.

excellent idea, agreed Orphan.

put training wheels on your bike.

it's all uphill from Laos.

what will they experience there, asked Orphan.

Hinduism, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahman, Ganish, a plethora of dieties.

pristine elevation.

let's go.

slideshow V2

couldn't you find something more inspiring, more complete, more enthralling, more enlightening, more honest and truthful and symbolic with eternity and infinity dancing arm in arm amid facades of dust, debris, fake columns, broken air conditioning units, shafts of light beaming down from heaven, guilty confessionals, abstract helmets of deadly imaginary sins like evil, gluttony, sloth, greed and so forth than an incomplete catholic church 1.5 hours north of jakarta, indonesia near a private elementary school where bells tolled, Hey here's the new super efficient and totally amazing Squarespace Slideshow V2?

perhaps.

carve

in a village
a girl carves
a gourd
she creates
children
families
animals
homes
forests
flowers
skies
rivers
stars
planets
delicate
lines
spirals
universes