Farewell Jakarta.
‘ Forests are habitats…They are our lungs.
Save what is left .’ says Palangkaraya
Jakarta… tall and lean and glass,
Sits on swampy land.
Crisscrossed by 13 rivers.
The city’s going down.
10 million people sinking
into the shrinking sands.
By night the city glitters
like a slice of paradise.
By day the air is choked with fumes…
And just like any city here on earth,
Expansion must be had.. at any price.
Across the Java Sea
Bad news from Borneo.
Forests are being dealt a fatal blow
in Kalimantan.
And with the savaged forests
broods an ever darker sky.
The trees, the birds and the Orangutang. …
Everything is dying.
Kristine Byrne. July 2019
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