BY THE WATERS OF THE TEMBELING

I discovered this cutting in one of my old books... and I became lost in it... 

A Poem by Cecil Rajendra
Published in the Sunday Star, July 5, 1981


* for Ong Soo Keat

Part I

By the waters of the Tembeling
where samba deer
and seladang undisturbed
roam where the buffalo
tapir and the wild boar play...

By the waters of the Tembeling
where drongo
and hornbill criss-cross skies
where bamboo
genuflect to kiss the river...

By the waters of the Tembeling
my mind roamed
across our gauche and grace-
less cities-
their emissaries of greed
and destruction;
a flotilla of timber lorries.

And by the waters
of the Tembeling
I sat down and wept.


Part II

No piranha menace
the waters
of the Tembeling
but sharks
with buzz-saw teeth
are everywhere...

As the mist lifted off
Bukit Teresek
I saw a once virgin
jungle in dishabille:
torn, ravished, bruised
Used by gangs
of loggers, she lay in
tatters, while
lascivious one-eyed
helicopters circled
overhead and ogled.

From her lacerated
side I watched
a stream of laterite
trickle to bloody
the waters of Tembeling

As the mist lifted off
Bukit Teresek
I heard the witches'
whine
of chain-saw cutter
Clack
and cackle of bulldozer
cracked
the song of bulbul
and cricket.
I saw juggernauts in
every corner
set about dismantling
our forest.

A cirrus of diesel
hovered like a vulture
waiting to take over
this land and its people.

No piranha menace
the waters
of the Tembeling
but sharks
with buzz-saw teeth
are everywhere...