Jakarta

two dutch officers on top of a makeshift watchtower barefooted common soldiers kicking imaginary tumbleweeds sweaty accountants in counting houses, bamboo fans, greasy watch chains a javanese general shooting seven hundred of his own soldiers in the head (he took off his blangkon before he shot the first one) the dutch officers looking on with a mixture of disgust and [...]

on a cloudy like like today i always think of this bit from a sitor situmorang poem: jakarta kumuh tercinta can’t remember which poem, but that’s the whole stanza. he being mr. coy modernist and all. where did you hide pound’s personae, eh? i can see it bulging out of yer shirt pocket! (it’s ‘beloved / decrepit / jakarta’ for [...]

Everytime he goes to the restaurant he would go to the dilapidated toilet with no toilet seat and take a piss standing up and stare at the LINDETEVES sign painted on the water tank. Or, more like L NDE I EVI S. The sign has been painted over so many times, presumably with the same salted duck-egg [...]

it’s night. and i’m listening to magnetic fields’ 69 love songs vol. 2. tonight there was a mysterious body of water on the road in front of pasar cipulir. looked like an oil spill. or jeremy thomas’ hair. not much traffic on ciledug raya. the formula goes (commuting, going home):  5-7, better stay at plaza senayan, [...]

it’s raining. again. i like it when it rains. or maybe i don’t. it’s nice, how the water slushes away all the dirt, rotting banana leaves, indomie wrappers, swallow sandals, off the streets and into the gutters. except there are no gutters, so they’re all on the streets. i’m in ciledug and i have [...]