The Flight of Feathers

* this entry from now *

One new message appears in my email inbox. It's from Captain Mo, written from Afghanistan.

She describes her accomodation in a shipping container, describes the F18 jets that roar overhead, describes the many landmines left behind by the Russians, how due to this walking in certain areas requires following local kids familiar with the terrain.

From my room with two blankets, mint tea and chocolate, a desk lamp that casts a warm glow, I read this.

Earlier, I read about the parents whose children were buried beneath a poorly constructed school that collapsed in China's May 08 earthquake, how one mother said in regards to being compensated for her loss, "what kind of justice can we have? There is no way to bring back my daughter".

And currently reading in Murakami's After the Quake, the unsettling undertone of distance and the intangibility of events...


At least, there's thoughts, there's prayer -- and perhaps it works in the same way that Shanley's Doubt interprets gossip: as feathers shredded from a pillow that take flight, past walls and fences, on such a course that even if attempted could not all be gathered.



... at the moment, Hotel Alcala, Quito
sending out feathers



(new song added; it conjures images of feathers in flight)