The budget airline touched down
The Cat International Airport
The air was breezy the smelling of sea
The model stepped out breathed the home air
The plane was loaded full
Every one tourist and local
Landed on the Horn Bills
The adventures of a life
The model walked along
With the other passengers
The sky was cloudy with cool wind
She felt at home
She cleared immigration
Quickly she passed through
Out to the arrival gate
She saw her placard and her name
She walked to the dark skinned man
“I am the one on the card”
“Follow me the car is waiting
I will send you to the hotel”
She walked with him
Listening to the crowded noises
The jostling of people at the gate
“Tomorrow I send you to the river”
“Oh I forget
I am going back today
I have my boat waiting for me
You just send me to the ferry terminal”
“But I was told.....”
She cut him in mid-sentence
“You send me to the ferry terminal
There is nothing for you to say”
In the limousine
The driver drove her there
Within minutes she alighted at the ferry
Her brother came to fetch her home
She saw election posters
She felt the mood to campaign
She did it once before
Now she wanted change
The man waved at his sister
“You don't bring many luggages”
“I am traveling light brother
It has been a long time”
“Every one talking of change
Even the villages upstream say so
We have seen our ancestors land gone
Grabbed by the greedy politicians
Now this State election
Every one wants a change
Enough of plundering
Enough of lies and deceptions”
“So you keep abreast of politics
I heard a lot in the capital....
People really want change
Enough of slogans and cheating”
“I have to sister
Our hope lie with us
We can't be fools can we?
When we know what they do”
“I remembered we got peanuts
These politicians got millions of it
We can see their palatial homes
We still live on the rivers”
“Change must be good
We shouldn't be afraid to change
Now the fever will crank up
We must play our part in it”
“You saw in the paper?
They bring in new people
The government wants new faces
The same logic the same plundering
To me it is the change of guards
Another team to harvest the riches
20 new faces in the State election
We must change the government”
“You are really into it brother
I think our villages should need people like you
Our ancestors should be very proud with your ambition
Let's us hit the road in our neighborhood
She helped her brother
By starting the motor engine
The flashes of water the smell of engine
She was alive just a mere few seconds
A photographer saw her
He knew he recognized her face
He used to shoot her photographs
Lately somebody took the job
He was at the ferry terminal
Wasting his time to catch some politicians
Rumored going around some big guns would arrive
Now he was distracted of a face he knew
He used a zoom len to shoot
He captured her smiling faces
The way she handled the motor engine
The skipper on the boat....
He waved to her
Hoping she would see him
The model saw a man
She waved back
Then she took a binocular
Focused on the man taking pictures
She recognized him alright
It had been years she left him
He was a small time photographer
He made her famous magazines
Though she earned a lot of money
He was a small town photographer
She waved again
Blew him an air kiss
He waved back
As the boat pulled out
“Who is he?”
“The local photographer
He made your sister famous and lonely”
“What you mean?”
“I can't find any boyfriend
Those who are interested
They just wanted attention
It was just a fad for a while”
The boat was cruising along
On the orange water of Ranjang River
Some other boats swaying with the water
Some anchored at the nearby coastal shore
“You are in the popular magazines
Every one here knows about you
Though nobody knows you are my sister
So I don't need to explain..........
“About your childhood buddy?
I heard he went chasing for you
He came to talk to me
He was sad when he found out you were gone”
“Yeah I knew
I didn't tell him
He found me in the city
He gave tickets to come home”
“Oh he met you finally?”
“I think he tracked me down
Like our ancestors tracking tribes
And animals back in the old days”
A while they stopped
They rested to observe things
They felt the quietness
The silence of the river
Her brother bought out some food
The home made bread and kaya
They had a good time talking
Until it was time to move again
The model going to the village
Where their ancestors lived
Though their parents moved to town
It was here they enjoyed the solitude
The clean fresh air
The calling of the birds
The quacking sound of monkeys
The dripping droplets of morning dews
“Why you decide to return?
You have been away for years
Occasionally I saw your face in magazines
But life in our village snail pace changes”
The model kept quiet for a while
The Land of Hornbills so many issues
Though she didn't want to participate
In her line of work she heard stories
Of the state leaders
They lived beyond their means
Yet they could go free
With so much immunities
The people of the land
They were deprived of their livelihood
Their own land too were stolen
By the state leaders and cronies
The social structures divide and rule
The poor villagers got lied to instead
By their own kind to get them to toe the line
They got some tokens food and clothing some cash
The villagers never knew
The gold mine they gave it up
The state leaders got rich
One leader got many
The model turned around
“I feel home sick
I guess I am away from home too long
Now it is good time to return”
“I know you sister
You want to participate in state election
You always try to make mischief
Raising issues trying to make changes”
“Are you happy now?
I doubt you are brother
You live by the day
It is just bullshit”
“Do you read the Sarawak Report?
It tells you how ills our leaders are!
Our people should rule this State
Not by a minority race!”
“You have been cheated
Maybe it is our own stupid fault
We never dreamed beyond borders
Until it is too late”
No comments:
Post a Comment