Prayer flags: Sikkim

Thin and pale over the Teesta Valley the slim flags flutter. Frail And scarcely visible they ripple the fog. And all the small sounds of church bells and roosters and children, And the barely discernible smells of cattle and chimney smoke and lilies Seem to be what they are saying. In the gray, attentive mist the pale flags flutter, Holy and ragged and speechless, like all true prayers.