Setia by James Penha Somewhere between Melak and Tanjung Isuy along Borneo’s Mahakam River we entered the house of an old fisherman. He led us into a sitting room divided by a short board fence protecting a shallow pool of water where, against the wall, beneath a crucifix of black ironwood, steeped a crocodile, peacefullyContinue reading “Setia by James Penha”
Category Archives: Indonesia
Roots by James Penha
RootsBatang, Western Sumatraby James Penha The roots of the two banyan trees poured themselveslike rivulets into the Batang River—one from the eastern bank, one from the west—competing for the endless torrents gods grant Sumatra.The village elders who met at the full moonbeneath each tree loved their own banyan so muchthey needed to destroy its rivalContinue reading “Roots by James Penha”
Elegy for the Quagga by Sarah Lindsay
Elegy for the Quagga by Sarah Lindsay Krakatau split with a blinding noise and raised from gutted, steaming rock a pulverized black sky, over water walls that swiftly fell on Java and Sumatra. Fifteen days before, in its cage in Amsterdam, the last known member of Equus quagga, the southernmost subspecies of zebra, died. Most ofContinue reading “Elegy for the Quagga by Sarah Lindsay”
POETRY and PLACES 