it was the flash of color
that caught my attention

after riding miles alongside
a dull murky brown creek
running just beyond some
brown dirt dusted plants
growing on the side of a
dry bumpy brown dirt road
i made her stop the moto
so i could take a picture

it was probably algae or
the tiny leaves of some
freshwater plant
just doing its part to
purify the brown water
i never got close enough
to know for sure

what i do know is
a decade after i’d last watched
an episode of teenage mutant ninja turtles
my first thought at seeing
flourescent green
in a creek
in cambodia
was “ooze”

i was not expecting that