Jaded
Mandalay, Burma 2011
He sat near the entrance. Everyone who paid the price of admission walked past him. He smoked a cheroot and gazed at us disinterestedly. We didn’t want to buy his trinkets and he knew it. He learned to size up tourists long ago. He puffed on his cigar. Clouds of smoke billowed from his nostrils. We seized on this as a photo opportunity. He became a human bellows. Smoke, black and carcinogenic flew from his mouth and nose…did it come from his ears as well? It seemed to. The others encouraged him to keep exhaling. I began to worry about his health. I began to be repulsed by the unnaturalness of it. I walked away. But, then again, I had my shot.