The electricity to the community
has been cut again
so night is truly dark
the way it is truly dark
in the mountains away from urban lights

as i emerged from the meeting
i was engulfed by a black sky
the moon had not yet risen
Jupiter almost impossibly bright
in the tropical night
its position almost straight overhead
gives away the latitude
as far south of gringolandia
it is very close to equinox
looking up through
a large spreading tree with an open crown
silhouetted against an obsidian sky
speckled with all the 12,000 points of light
of the Mayan universe
nearby someone was playing a Scottish bagpipe
that's the kind of place this is
the meeting ground for
indigenous knowledge
soldier poets
bagpipe players
and students in resistance

This morning i awoke before sunrise
to climb the hill above the community
on the way up i noticed that i was subtly different
my mental state had shifted during the night
after a little self examination
i was able to put a name to the thing
that was different: anxiety
i discovered that i wasn't anxious
the veil of koyaanisqatsi had parted
the layers of civilization peeled away
at least temporarily
and I existed only in this moment
satisfied that it was enough

by the time i got to the top of the hill
the sun was just rising
and almost at the same time clouds
were rolling in
to obscure the view i'd come for
which i took as a metaphor for this reality

after all this is a (remnant) cloud forest

Saludos desde el corazon del mundo.