S.
K. Kelen is an Australian poet who has been published widely in his own
country and overseas.
His books include Atomic Ballet (1991), Dingo
Sky (1993) and Trans-Sumatran Highway & Other Poems.
He
was Visiting Poet at the University of South Dakota for Spring Semester 1996.
"Trans-Sumatran Highway" is the title poem of his latest book
which can be ordered
on the web at
Australian Writing Online
(AWOL) or direct from the publisher:
Polonius Press
35 Wybalena
Grove
COOK ACT 2614
AUSTRALIA
Trans-Sumatran Highway
Is a race track built for carts, winds a silver spell over a dragon's back.
The bus has no front brakes and our lives are God's will,
Life turns
with the wheels
The bus stops at a walking highway.
Hello Money, the children welcome you, smile sweetly,
their eyes shine
sun and mountain.
Rickety rope bridges criss-cross the Bohorok River
that
surges the approaching mountain tsunami.
And at the head of the river is the
Jungle Inn
where the manager registers guests in the heart of darkness.
Elements are real, everything else is a game or trick
and at night the
mountain gods demonstrate glee.
Sheet lightning frames river & forest in
white light
shows the once quiet river is black and angry
with churning
mud. Air crackles, lightning in the river
flash flash the lightning is in
us electric humans.
The wind brings the cries of angry elephants
river
swells like high sea &
on its banks the bamboo towns wait.
Every Sunday gibbons, white and black monkeys
overrun villages on the
Trans-Sumatra Highway.
Occasionally, a bamboo tiger kitten will stray...
A
ragged boy chases a bicycle wheel with a stick
through coffee and pepper
trees.
Beyond the Government Orang-utan Sanatorium,
past the final waterfalls
and bamboo walls
far from the rice paddy's jaws and grinding saws
a
tiger roars his name Harimau, Harimau, Harimau.
Closer to town, it's weekend
fun and the end for a honeybear
and her cubs squaring up to a pack of
hunting dogs.
Back at the Jungle Inn, mushrooms explode
in a vicious
brew specially prepared for Hari Merdeka.
Drink magic the sky sings, stars
form themselves
into a map of the archipelago.
Fireworks
on TV
with the sound turned down,
the President's Jakarta parade elicits much
laughter.
As it is a holiday appease volcano spirits
with sacrifices of
lit cigarettes,
leave rice on roofs for storms to eat.
Hungry rain.
Almost facing the Malacca Straits, Medan is a city that chokes
on vinyl
air, satellite dishes mount tenements'
rusted iron roofs. TVs shout
foreign devilry.
Smoky traffic, honking horns, crunching gears.
Air
burns. It might be Hell but above the din
a 200 decibel call to prayer
echoes in every heart.
Hectares of sweets & crunchy treats
fill bustling Bukittinggi
markets where everyone just eats.
Here Zeus lands and falls in love with a
cocktail waitress
from Nias and this event recurs daily,
a portent
amplified by a convention of Batak gangsters
at the Modern Hotel, Parapet,
looms in the Muslim Women's League
Brestagi branch's deliberations.
Deeper in the markets' maze darkness eats daylight
stalls sell sweets
for cruel tastes,
there's a fresh tiger on display
(tracked for eight
days in Jambi Province).
Benny the jammu is running with bottles
to
drain the cat's blood fast so it's bottled hot
while his apprentice has the
arduous task of grinding bones.
Toto has a buyer for the skin and the Sultan
of Dash
has first options on the penis; the brain is eaten
on the spot.
Whiskers and whatever's left will be spread thinly
through an assortment
of teas, pills and jellies for export.
Along a track winding through rice fields, a boy
chases a bicycle wheel
with a stick.
Lake Maninjau's scenery shifts about, sky trades
colours with mountains disguised as clouds
a billion shades of grey
and blue
the crickets' song is everything.
Maninjau the poets' lake
is serene with traffic's non-stop zoom.
Old men in coolie hats paddle
canoes to heaven.
The tourists' many-tongued chatter fires up
when the
power fails, bark with gusto.
Sunset glistens across waking water
blinding
as shaman's dust.
(At Padang
catch the cockroach boat
for Tanjung Priok,
port of
Jakarta )
