Poems by Jennifer Mackenzie 

​BOGOR II
 
Bogor Gardens                                          Kebun Raya Bogor
 
Samida (man-made forest) estab
Sri Baduga Maharaja aka Prabu Siliwangi
(1474-1513)  ruler of Sunda kingdom
 Batulis inscription    to protect seeds of rare trees > destroyed sixteenth century
1744 Dutch East India Co. >
Raffles 1811 English style gardens > Teijsmann 1830-80 curator
1848 four seeds of West African
oil palm (Oh no!)
 
                                                                        WWTwo
                                                                        the Japanese curators
                                                                        saw off the soldiers,
                                                                        their axes
 
Samida
Pakuan Pajajaran visited by Tome Pires 1513
Banten  Tangerang  Cimanuk
Tome Pires ‘has well-built houses of palm-leaf & wood.
They say the king’s house has three hundred & thirty wooden pillars
as thick as wine casks.’
Seventeenth century rainforest & tigers
a row of banyan trees all that was left
 
the contaminated site
 
palm oil> Ordre Baru
 
 
 
 
BOGOR III
 
the good king [as in a fairy tale] planted the seeds of rare trees
 
                                                                        the heat drifts in the mist
 
[his workers]
dug a lake for agriculture
              & for beauty
 
                                                                        the cool dripping morning is a blessing
 
internecine strife
under the pendopo  shade
the Portuguese agree
construct the moat
 
                                                                        much talking on a cloudy afternoon
 
                                           but no
according to the
Cerita Parahiyangan sixteenth century
 
‘war came to’
                                           1579
‘war came to Kalapa, to Galuk, to Datur, to Madiri, to the Portuguese – war came, all gone, all destroyed, all…’
 
occupied by Demak and Cirebon, the forests are burning
 
                                                                        one last row of banyan trees providing shade
                                                                        for tigers
 
                                           the Sunday crowds
                                           colourful music lights the air
 
                                           Bogor Botanical Gardens
 
                                           resting  on the thousand leaves
                                           the tangled roots
                                           the memory of saplings
 
                                           the Samida forest 
 
 

Jennifer Mackenzie is a poet and reviewer, focusing on writing from and about the Asian region. Her most recent publication is Borobudur and Other Poems (Lontar, Jakarta 2012), and she has presented her work at a number of conferences and festivals, including the Ubud, Irrawaddy and Makassar festivals. Her poetry and criticism has appeared in a number of journals including Literary Shanghai, Cordite Poetry Review, Mascara, Cha, and Sydney Review of Books. In 2016 she had a residency at Seoul Artspace_Yeonhui, and is currently working on a new Indonesia-focused project, Navigable Ink, as well as a collection of essays, Writing the Continent.  Her Masters’ thesis (University of Melbourne) was on the historical fiction of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and she has also studied Indonesian at Universitas Gajah Mada.

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