China dust

At the office, I sign for yet another parcel sent from a Chinese factory.

These parcels that have travelled to wintry Finland all the way from southeast China are always covered with thin dust that sticks to my fingers. Road dust from the Silk Road? Smog particles from the marvellous city of Beijing? Atomic dust from North Korea's nuclear tests? Sand that once blew along the silent steppes of Central Asia?

The poetic possibilities are endless. I wash my hands and sigh happily.