DAILY PHOTO: Bhaktapur Durbar Square

DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Bhaktapur

Stone Guard [Free Verse]

arrayed in pairs,
mythical guardians
stand aside a stone staircase

the tourists seem
undissuaded by the figures -
be they freakish, grotesque,
or mean

the most dismaying of them
may be the ones with a
warm, polite 
grin...

and a lion's body

DAILY PHOTO: Rainy Day in Bhaktapur

Taken in May of 2018 in Bhaktapur (Khwopa)

DAILY PHOTO: Bhairavnath Temple, Bhaktapur

Taken in Bhaktapur in 2018

DAILY PHOTO: Sundown Light, Bhaktapur

Taken in May 2018 in Bhaktapur

DAILY PHOTO: Bhaktapur Backstreets

Taken in May of 2018 in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

DAILY PHOTO: Taumadhi Square, Bhaktapur

Taken in May of 2018 in Bhaktapur from Nyatapola Temple plinth

DAILY PHOTO: Durbar Square, Bhaktapur

Taken in May of 2018 in Bhaktapur, Nepal

POEM: Joker, or: Disruptive Forces

Among the brick rubble, down a side street from the temples encased in spiky, cuboid scaffolds, next to a bulging wall bolstered by beams knocked in at a slant, someone painted this graffiti of Heath Ledger’s Joker.

I stare at the maniacal face and can’t help but wonder whether someone painted it in the seven years between Ledger’s portrayal and the 2015 earthquake that broke Bhaktapur, or whether it’s a commentary on disruptive forces.