Jennifer Mackenzie
400 sampan+
carrying soldiers
made shore at Panjan island
only a few fishermen appeared in front of
their armed adversaries, the rest having fled
the mangrove trees
flourished in such tropical balm
hidden in their density
an unfinished Ganesha
a scattering of chisels lay near
its curling trunk
‘Spit on it!’ someone ordered
‘Touch its trunk, it has no sakti!’^
nervously, they touched the statue
nervously, they knocked it down
cold to the touch abandoned just a lump of stone
Ganesha
heaved rolled pushed
through the brambles & roots of the swampland
up a small hill &
out to sea
it took a long time
+small boat
^divine power
* derived from an episode in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Indonesian language novel, Arus Balik [Cross-currents] (Hasta Mitra, Jakarta 1995), set principally in fifteenth century Java.
Jennifer Mackenzie is a poet and reviewer, focusing on writing from and about the Asian region. She has participated in a number of literary festivals and conferences, including the Ubud, Irrawaddy and Makassar festivals. Her most recent book is Borobudur and Other Poems (Lontar, Jakarta 2012) and she is currently working on a collection of essays, ‘Writing the Continent’, and a poetic exegesis of the work of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, ‘Navigable Ink’.