Churches of Sumatra

by Kirby Olson (June 2018)

 

Amsterdam, Irina Rumyantseva, 2015

 

The tigers of Sumatra and the orangutans

of Borneo may not have been bothered

by the Dutch missionaries who largely failed

to transform Indonesia into a church-

 

driven society, as the prevailing Muslims

quietly but firmly retained a strangle-hold

on faith. In the far-off jungles cryptozoologists claim

pterodactyls still circle, eyeing carbon-based

 

life as a caloric adjunct to solar

glucose. Plain white spires compete

with onion-domed mosques, whereas some

painters, some poets left a record

 

that the Jakartans would take to heart.

The peoples of Papua New Guinea

continue to hunt heads, shoot darts

from blow-guns, and boil missionaries

in round-bellied pots, while in Amsterdam

Indonesian immigrants enjoy Frank Sinatra.

 

 

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