Sound Bites

How many books have you read on milk? Do you know the history of paper clips? That kept people away for a while. Sometimes the only idea is to look up. So that’s what I did. It felt like a fortress and a spaceship. A wall of glass looked out onto people being hit by rubber bullets, people collapsing from tear gas – older women, little kids holding flags, grown men. We’re a sound bite culture. And as the sun drew closer, I could see false promises and decay stenciled all over and a laughing Buddha statue under a maple tree.