Blue

Pablo is on a long journey through the mountains and forests of Southern Mexico, searching for his lost Mama….

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Ola my friends, it has been a long hard journey for me these weeks. For many days I have been without my underpants and my singing monkey. Some nights I get so cold and lonely I think of all the friend I am leaving behind in my kneepit, the fun I had with my potatoes in the fields, and the fiestas I would make for everyone come stuff their fat faces. Pablo feel very sad for himself, wishing I had my dead doggie back to lick the tears from my face, or that my papa never sell my legs in card game to the gringos long time ago, so I could walk proper to where my heart it lies by the waves in the sea.

Most of all I miss the sweet smell of my mamas long black hairs, the sound her singing and screaming in the night, and the bitter hot taste her special mole.

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One morning I wake up and find I am not too far from a big village, bigger and stranger than I ever see before. I notice everything is so very quiet, even the birds have gone away. This make me scared, so I make my way slow past the crushed trees and broken rocks until I see a place so beautiful – I think I must be dreaming!

All the walls are painted blue and red and yellow and green and the roads are smooth and clean. It look just the same like something from a photo I find one time when the big truck crash and kill many chickens and peoples some years ago. I kept this photo under my pillow for many years, until it disappear one night, same time my mama she go away.




So I look inside the houses, thinking that maybe I find someone there, or maybe some clue why everything so empty and sad here. But inside is empty too, and dirty with dust, and old, so much older than the world outside the village.

Too scared to stay here long time, I decide to move on as quick as I can. I keep on going and don’t look back until I am back in the forest and the birds are singing again.

Its funny, but as a bambino I always dreamed to visit this place, but when I got there I found I did not want to stay. I am wondering what this mean when I fall to sleep.

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Later that night I dream of a big jaguar, who carry a baby in her teeth away from big forest fire.

When I wake I find the tip my fingers blue because of some long black hairs twisted round them.

It is then I start to smile again for the first time in many weeks.

My mama, I know, she cannot be too far away.

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Adios amigos. Come join me again soon!

My friend the singing monkey

Pablo make many friend on his journey to find his Mama. Like the shy singing monkey who follow me a long time from Palenque through the jungles of Chiapas.

I never see him, but I know he there because I hear him singing from the tree tops just above my head. When I look and call out for him he hide away. Maybe he shy monkey? I dunno. Pablo not mind, am just happy to know I am not alone.

One time I am tired and sad. I was stuck, cleaning my underpants by the magic lake in the mountains, eating some nanbannas, wondering how I can get across the other side. This is when I hear him start singing some very sad song, the kind that make your eye tickle and your ribs ache with longing for some warm arm huggings.


I cry for some long long time, and finally, when I run out of eye water I see my hat has gone. Just when I think I may cry some more, I see my hat peeking out a small wood boat behind where the tree the monkey was singing from before. A boat!

Pablo very happy! Now Pablo can get across the lake!

But what about my friend the monkey? He help Pablo with his singing and his magic, what can I give him to make him happy?

Pablo know what to do. I take out the freshest avocadoes and nanbanas, and the chica from the Lacandon Indians, and make for him a beautiful salad. I move away so I cannot see and sing to him one of my fiesta songs for that he can eat and make happy.

When I finish my singing I see that all the food has gone. Happy, I get ready for the boat.

But wait, where are Pablo’s underpants?

“The cheeky monkey he take my underpants”, I am thinking and laughing, as I get into the boat. I laugh for a good long time, which give me strength to go fast across the waves.

It is only when I am nearly the other side do I stop laughing long enough to hear the silence, and that I realise that my friend he has gone, and I am alone again.

Without my underpants.

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Remember friends – take good care your underwears, or maybe the cheeky monkey will take them.

And you will lose a good friend.

Adios amigos!

Visitor

One night on my journey I was sitting under the stars drinking the last of my food - some nice cold potato soup - when I hear this noises coming from the trees ahead. It was like a lady whispering in my ear some words I could not quite hear. It make the hair on my moustache tickle like when the fairy spiders come for their dance parties - and it make Pablo blow the big noisy nose trumpet so loud the jungle go very quiet.

After this I am hearing some footsteps and in the dark I can see some tall thin old lady wearing big dark dress. She stop just far enough away so I cannot see the face.

So I call to the old lady - ask if she would like to share some soup (even though it is my last). thinking she must be very hungry and tired here in the middle of no place. The lady say thank you and drink the soup - all the time her head turned away from me.

I ask her where she is coming from, and she says she is from the small village called Guanjanito (or something like) and is looking for her granddaughter who got very scared when the bad men came and ran away into the jungle and must have got lost someplace.

So I ask her if she want some help - maybe we can look together?

But no, the lady say that is not needed. She prefer to travel alone. Besides, it is the strangers which scare her away, so if she see another she does not know, she will maybe run even further away.

Now I am feeling bad, and say sorry but I am just passing through, I too am looking for someone I love.

"I know", said the old lady, "that is how I knew I could come and sit with you. Do not worry about the child. She will come back, they all come home in the end".

So I give her some of my gunannybanny juice - saying the child will be needing this more than me - and wish her well. The old lady she take the juice - say thank you - and then she was gone, her green dress disappearing into the jungle like how it came.

Her story make Pablo feel very sad, but Pablo happy at least can be of some help (even if he have no guannybanny juice left now!)

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In the night I have some big strange dream of a green and red bird who come find Pablo in the hot jungle, dying of thirst and who carry me over the mountain and towards the big blue water, towards my mama...

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Some days later I find myself some miles north away, when I meet some kind local farmer who give me some of their water and tacos, and let me sleep with their cow.

I ask them about the village the woman come from. The old one he says "yes, this was just a few miles away south of here."

Then he tell me some spooky story about this village.

"The indians they were very proud people, who lived in these parts for longer than the trees can remember. One year was terrible disaster. They have little food because of the bad storms which wash away their crops. Then the new government ask them for even more money so when they could not pay, they send in the troops to teach them a lesson, to show the other villages they must also pay for protection.

"So there was some fight, more guns came, and then the whole village was burnt to the ground and many peoples they just disappeared - men, women and children. Nobody know if they were killed or if they run away to the cities, like the president he said. All we know is that was many years ago, but also it is like yesterday.

"Where the village was is nothing now but birds, trees and their secrets".

Adios amigos!

Palenque arrows

Pablo is sorry it is taking him a long tome to have more adventures, but please do remember that he Pablo has no legs.




In the meantimes here is what the Lacandon indians gave pablo.

And also in colour:



Remember that it is a long way to travel to find your soul. And to find the answers you have to know the right questions to ask.

the moons of Palenque

Ola amigos!

I have been having a hard one this week.

You see, is a long trip for a someone no leg like me make my way over mountain to the sea.

Some places I see nothing but dark ahead. Some times I was thinking I must give up, go back and never see my momma, or the sand and the sea.

You see was a long time ago I eat my last potato and now I must eat what I find in jungle floor. Is not easy.

Each night I hear roar my belly button jaguar, and I must rub him very hard make him shut his face.

As I head north up the hills I see the fruit from the forest seem to be hiding away more and more from me, make me weak and my eyes spin round my brain like the time I eat the funny fungus.

So there I am, lying in the muck, singing to the blue moon in the sky, when out of the shrubbery come a ghost man, long white dress, hair black and long, scars run down his old crumply cheeks and big big nose big like the toucan birdy.

I am so very tired, I think I must be dreaming, or maybe it is some angel come to take me to meet my dead friends. So I give him a smile, welcome him and sing him my bestest song.

Soon there are many more angels come, watching, listening me, waiting for something…

Next I know it is daytime and I wake up near some old, beautiful stone temple, naked under soft flower smelly white sheet. Now I can see where all the fruits must have gone, for in front of me are so many jams and breads Pablo cry out with joy!

After I stuff my face stupid the man with the funny nose he tell me they are in this village the last of the Lacandon Indians – forced to run from the world when the devil it come to take their history and land. He say he come to help when he hear the sad songs I sing, like they hear the pain in my heart, and this make us brothers (or some such thing – Pablo not too sure - they speak a bit funny you know?). He tell me all about their ancestor the Maya and how now they are hiding, waiting for the world to start up again. Me I tell them of my kneepit adventures, my dead doggie, my mamma and my potatoes. We become good friends.



Anyways, after many more talkings, I realise I am very dirty (after many days Pablo start to smell like the burros underpants).

So they take me go for a swim in some big water they are calling sueños olvidados (see this picture – can you see me? Understand that Pablo must be keeping my hat on because many ladies present!).



After much fun and frollickings in the lake I tell them it is time I must be going. Before I leave they give me special magic arrows to protect me from the monsters I may meet on the way, and they also teach me how to make the special Mayan guanny banny passion pie - for to make the lady nice and comfy should I ever be feeling lonely!

Me, I promise to come back one day, bring them some of my special potato pancakes fresh from my kneepit. That day we promise to make the fiesta under the stars and make everything well again with the world.

Adios amigos – hope you can be joining me some time soon again!

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More about the plight of the Lacandon Indians.

A Pablo Poem

Yes, I have started my big journey.

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I am moving north, to the sea, where I dream my mamma is waiting for me with open arm and warm bosoms.
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At night it very cold and lonely in the mountain.

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This one night I come across a valley where the clouds they go to sleep. It look so peaceful out there, it make me want to jump into the soft whiteness and sleep with the dead souls who live in the sky.
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This make me think of old Toltec poem song. Is about the world without Quetzalcoatl – the god of light. I hope you like.
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...the book of souls has come to an end, alas, everything has reached its conclusion, no longer do I care to live here.
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Who will take me? Who will go with me? I am ready to be taken, alas. All that was fresh, the perfume, my flowers, my songs, have gone along with them.
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Great is my affliction, weighty is my burden; I write out a new song concerning it, that some time I may speak it there where I shall go, a song to be known when I shall leave the earth, that my soul shall live after I have gone from here, that my fame shall live fresh in memory.
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I cried aloud, I looked about, I reflected how I might see the root of song, that I might plant it here on the earth, and that then it should make my soul to live. The sweet exhalations of the lovely flowers rose up uniting with our flowers; one hears them growing as my song buds forth, filled with my words our flowers stand upright in the waters.
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But the flowers depart, their sweetness is divided and exhales, the fragrant poyomatl rains down its leaves where I, the poet, walk in sadness...

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From Here Begin Songs For The Teponaztli
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, by Daniel G. Brinton

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Don't forget come look about visit me my kneepit lands. Is many happy fun times!

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Adios amigos!

Pablo’s journey begins

It is with great pain I give you my happy news.

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I decide to follow the fireflies and go find my future, whatever that may be.

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Maybe I find my momma and my lost legs and dance the happy happy every night by the sea side.

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Or maybe I get kidnapped and sold to plantation bosses who will make me their slave and slowly torture and poison my lungs and the earth with their evil bananas like they do with many poor peoples no one ever sees.

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I dunno. All I know is Pablo has got to go and follow the flies.

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Before I go I say adios to my friends Frank, Chico, Juanita, the cheeky spider monkeys and my beloved potato farm. Since maybe I will never see them again, I take a little bit from each of them to carry with me in my little bag (Juanita - she give me many slappings before I get something from her).

I am hoping you will join me and help make my journey less lonely.

Adios amigos!