maintain their honest true
emotional awareness
in the moment
before artificial social conditioning
destroys their fragile innocence
humor and curiosity
crimes against humanity
fear is a killer
mai's hearing evaluation -
anthony from NZ came, met, talked,
promised the world, took her out, tried to seduce her, failed, he left
mai has a black belt in karate
she's killed more men with silence than you can imagine
she is resigned to her life
massage and laundry scrubbing under the paternal gaze
of her older sister who sits in perpetual admiration of her mirrored reflection
how does her awareness register POTENTIAL for unrealized dreams
how does her silent resignation
understanding comprehend one single lost chance,
all the complexity w/o expectations
in the false dream of star rain
they moved a wooden toy pawn,
salad bar in silence
welcomed cool air from a brown river,
children pressed noses to a rolling window, laughing
an archeologist skips through star puddles into 8th Century excavations
freedom sings stones,
selling a Blue Pumpkin to a Cambodian land mine amputee
w/o a left leg selling DVDs to fat tourists
talking with their mouths full
an Enfield rumbles in Pokhara
spinning the Wheel of Time
rejoicing in miracles, small ones
sit in meditation
we do laundry by machine, said language animal
3.8 billion years ago a black hole captured a star the size of our sun
sucked the star into its empty mass the star exploded the black hole
escaping energy created, released streams of light we see today
at that moment 20 raindrops trusted your intuition
to travel is to feel
indonesia asked you to return
two years ago you said thank you to orchids
goodbye to gardens
orchids remember you
the apple tree
you planted at Gardenia
grows strong
roots buried deep below blossoms
fragrant with memory
Street meat in Quanzhou, China