The boats pressed together in the shallows, restlessly nudging against each other. Children clambered, women waited, bundles of goods shifted and slid. No one paid me any attention. I couldn’t tell if this was a market, a meeting place, or simply the only patch of ground left afloat. It was a kind of town square, bobbing on waters the color of cocoa milk — rich, opaque, and impossible to see through. From above it looked choreographed, almost festive, yet there was no laughter — only the quiet persistence of people going about lives I couldn’t begin to untangle. I hovered at the edge, wondering if this tangle was their order.

Order? Who said anything about order?

'The Floating Square' is the upcoming part 2 of the Kampong Phluk tryptich.