Handwriting

In the dry lands every few miles, moving north, another roadside Ganesh Straw figures on bamboo scaffolds to advertise a family of stilt-walkers Men twenty feet high walking over fields crossing the thin road with their minimal arms and "lying legs" A dance of tall men with the movement of prehistoric birds in practice before they alight So men become gods in the small village of Ilukwewa Ganesh in pink, in yellow, in elephant darkness His simplest shrine a drawing of him lime chalk on a grey slate All this glory preparing us for Anuradhapura its night faith A city with the lap and spell of a river Families below trees around the heart of a fire tributaries from the small villages of the dry zone Circling the dagoba in a clockwise hum and chant, bowls of lit coal above their heads whispering bare feet Our flutter and drift in the tow of this river From the Trade Paperback edition.Michael Ondaatje is the author of 'Handwriting' with ISBN 9780771068775 and ISBN 0771068778.