Your Very Flesh Shall Be A Great Poem

A torrential downpour in the distance provides a stark demarcation on the arid plains between the parched and the quenched.

The VLA (Very Large Array), an astronomical radio observatory, is an extraordinary surprise to the unsuspecting traveler through this scrubland just North of the Gila National Park. Each of the 27 antennas is 82 feet in diameter, but arise slowly out of the distance as you move through the landscape, until you're close enough to be awed by their immensity and anomalous presence. 

Truck driver delivering freshly cut sugar cane for processing at the sugar factory that is the primary economy of this island.

The inner workings of a sugar factory.

A worker inspects the still very watery sugar water in an early stage of the process that will result in various grades of crystallized sugar.

The Saint Joseph Cathedral was once one of the largest in Central America, but was mostly destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1773. While parts have been restored, most of the structure stands with its grand arches open to the sky.

Street dogs.​

Street dog. This skin and bones dog followed us most of the way up the volcano with hopes for a hand-out. Like most of her kind, she was cautious, sweet, engaging, and endlessly patient. I felt badly for her because we had little to offer and I feared that the exertion would be too much for her emaciated condition.

Street dog. This new mother reminded me of the she-wolf of Rome who nurtured Romulus and Remus in mythology.​

Street dog.​

Street dog.​

Street dog. This guy seemed to have given up on asking for handouts and just snoozed in the middle of the path at the foot of the volcano, a mangy and boney pile.​

This was one of the main holding cells for slaves in the belly of one of the primary slaving castles of West Africa. While you can feel the presence of the millions of tortured souls that once passed through it, the teeming streets of the village outside don't seem to hold any grudges- when I walked back in to the bright light and ruckus, I half expected to receive resentful looks for what my white skin represents in such a context. There were none.

A not atypical restaurant bathroom.

Haiti, nearly a year after being struck by a massive earthquake, still wore its devastation everywhere your eye fell, and I could barely imagine how it must have been in the immediate aftermath.

Haiti, nearly a year after being struck by a massive earthquake, still wore its devastation everywhere your eye fell, and I could barely imagine how it must have been in the immediate aftermath.

Haiti, nearly a year after being struck by a massive earthquake, still wore its devastation everywhere your eye fell, and I could barely imagine how it must have been in the immediate aftermath.

A rural cemetery awaits the storm.

Glaciers calve in to icebergs of all sizes, and these offspring eventually ablate, sometimes in to surprisingly delicate sculpture. There's something almost mystical to be there in the extraordinary silence of true wilderness when the sculpture finally collapses with a high-tuned snap under the intense gaze of the Spring sun.