Poème

Today is Dominique’s birthday.
I forgot to get her anything.
Fish and rice for dinner tonight.
I really hope Romain
takes his bath.
He bit my ankle earlier so I
dragged him into Adrien’s room
and left him there.
I forgot to pick up the money for the water,
earlier,
so I just made a withdrawal
and bought it.
Romain was annoyed,
but I gave him a 7Up
so he was pacified.
Taxi drivers are total assholes.
You’d think they’d be grateful to have fares.
But no.

 

San Marcos, April

I just bought a flute from Diego. I talked him down from 120 quetzales to 55. It’s a flute made in the traditional Mayan way, using solar energy to burn the holes and make the marks. He takes a very small glass with a tiny bit of agua in the bottom, and uses the sun shining through the glass to smoke the wood, to carve words and designs. Each flute takes four days to make. He makes them at nine or ten in the morning when the sun is strongest.