When it comes to construction, things are usually pretty straightforward here. We dig, we stack, we shape, we hoist, we level, we pass heavy things one to another. We obey the laws of physics, as much by inclination as constraint.

Take the karai, as an example.

Elsewhere it might find work as a holy water fount, a hubcap, headgear. But here it is a hauler, a carry all, an humble portmanteau.

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We use it to bring things from this place to that, and to keep order in the process.

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We shovel sand into it.

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Pile it up.

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Load it with ballast

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until it disappears in its task. But the unbending rule is that you must lift the karai and all you have burdened it with.

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In a magical moment it may seem that two fingertips alone are required to balance the load

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before tossing it like a heap of flower petals into the concrete mixer,

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to tumble with water

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and ballast until three equal one.

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Then any old body can scoop and shovel a wheelbarrow full

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send it on its way to karais standing by

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to get the stuff back again

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where it belongs.

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Then, in compliance with hard gravitational , truth,

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it has to be hefted up and dumped in the ring beam form.

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And that’s how it went until one day a stranger with a quick smile and a hat that many thought looked like an older model UFO showed up to work.

He bent down to pick up his first karai just like anyone else,

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but then lifted it…light as a feather

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and, as if it were a pigeon from his pocket…released it.

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And it flew straight to Murafu,

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who took it out of the air

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and dumped the concrete into the ring beam form.

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Then it seemed to hit him, and he examined the strange karai very closely.

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This went on for most of the afternoon. Of course, every now and then one would get away.

and we’d all look to see where it went.

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“Did it go that way??”

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“No. I saw it over there.”

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“Maybe it came from that way and went the other way.” They were so fast it was hard to tell.

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And sometimes one would come buzzing back just over the mason’s head.

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Then the stranger would have a good laugh.

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The events that afternoon seemed to affect people in different ways. Some seemed confused.

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Did I just see what I thought I saw??

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Maybe I imagined the whole thing.

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I’m confused…I need a nap.

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Some wondered what it all meant.

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Others acted like they’d seen it all before, and probably had.

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But the workers, faces speckled with concrete from the spinning karais,

were mostly quiet.

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They weren’t quite sure what had happened.

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For some it seemed a mystical happening.

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But all bore witness to the deeds of the stranger in the hat.

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Who just smiled and then went on his way.

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So long form Area 51,

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David

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A Post Script:

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I was telling a few of the dogs all about it at lunch,

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and one of them reasoned that if he ate his ugali off the ground, on something that sort of looked like a kirai, maybe he would be able to fly too.

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It didn’t quite work out that way for him.

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A Post, Post Script:   All the really good photos are Debi’s.

Posted on October 4th, 2009 by david
Filed under: Recent News