On a Six-Part Travel Show

On a six-part travel show on PBS

I see the ravages of war in Kashmir,

the contested area between Pakistan

and India, the lush and beautiful

in-between place.

 

Farther along I see Tibetan Buddhism

practiced in exile safe for now from the

long arm of oppression.  Monks paint

Tibetan images to keep the memory alive.

Metal sculptors beat

 

the heck out of emerging images to keep

the memory alive, too.  Children sing and

dance and celebrate Gandhi’s birth in trad-

itional Tibetan language.  The exiles yearn for

home but fear war and death.

 

The U.S. drones down targets in Pakistan,

Afghanistan, still Latin America after all

this time and considers surveying American

citizens on their home turf solely for national

security the powers-that-be assure.

 

Bodies are torn apart in torn apart places of

elephants, rats and roaches trying to be true

to their calling so they can move up a notch

or two next time around and I just got through

an argument with my

 

wife that has left me with acid reflux, rising blood

pressure and a really big desire for world peace –

I mean the whole, darn world including my little

six-hundred-sixty square foot domicile before it

becomes a homicile,

 

and I know that’s not a word, but you get the idea.

Thank heavens, she is a soft fabric sculptor and not

one of those with hammer in hand who bangs the

blazes out of the tin man.