Tag: writing
-
The Catechist’s Cup: Faith, Coffee, and Resilience in Kapuas Hulu
Father Thomas stirred instant coffee into his tin mug, watching the rain beat a relentless rhythm against the tin roof of the remote forest chapel. Father Thomas stirred instant coffee into his tin mug, watching the rain beat a relentless rhythm against the tin roof of the remote forest chapel. Across Kalimantan, the blend of…
-
The Hornbill Who Guarded the First Fire: A Dayak Hornbill Fire Origin Myth
Before the longhouses stood along the winding Kapuas, before the river people learned to weave roofs from palm and story, the nights of middle earth were endless and black. High above the canopy, where the stars still walked on thin silver bridges, the upper gods kept fire locked inside a golden gourd. They laughed at…
-
Midday Brews and Broken Promises: A Coffee Table Conversation
Twelve o’clock on the clock meant the fierce tropical sun was directly overhead, yet the silence between them felt frostier than any mountain peak. Lina placed the single ceramic cup of sweetened local coffee in the exact center of the weathered teak table. The steam rose in a thin, trembling column. Bello did not reach…
-
The Spirit of the River Bend: A Fantasy Tale of Kapuas Hulu
They said the swirling eddies near the bend of the Kapuas didn’t hide crocodiles, but rather guardians who traded secrets for roasted coffee beans. At high noon, when the sun stood directly above the water and every shadow disappeared, young boatman Tama steered his small canoe into the known dangerous curve. He carried only one…
-
PALE CROWN III
A Borneo Trilogy in Verse What remainsis not a moral but a residue:that some powers passonly when given,that some truces are only as strongas the next cough in a child’s chest,and that the green keeps risingwhether we are ready to climb again or not. The forest, as always,keeps the rest. III. MILK OF THE PALM…
-
PALE CROWN II
A Borneo Trilogy in Verse These pages cameafter I had listened longer than I spoke,the quiet gathering its own weightin the space between breaths. The climb is real—real as the dream that lingerswhen you wakestill tasting thinner air on your tongue. II. PATH THROUGH THE CANOPY A Lyric Sequence BOOK ONE: The Three Rivers Lost…
-
PALE CROWN
A Borneo Trilogy in Verse This is not the history of any single people.It is the heat left in the palmafter the shaking stops—the kind that will not let the drumssound the way they used to. What remains is neither truce nor victory.Only a scar that did not heal clean,a blade that now carries two…
-
ASH AND CHARCOAL III
The Longhouse Trilogy I did not set out to write a story about fire. I set out to write about what remains when the fire has done its work—the ash that clings to the tongue, the charcoal that stays under the nails, the beads that click against a collarbone long after the body that once…
-
ASH AND CHARCOAL II
The Longhouse Trilogy II. THE CHARCOAL LONGHOUSEA Lyric Trilogy for Lutan BOOK ONE: The Hand That Fed the Fire The SparkLutan They named me Lutanbecause my father sold charcoalafter every raid.Black dust under the nails.Smoke in the hair.I never lit the first torch.I only kept the pile burninglong afterthe voices stopped.
-
ASH AND CHARCOAL
The Longhouse Trilogy I. THE CRIMSON LONGHOUSEA Lyric Trilogy for Anya BOOK ONE: Ash in the Mouth The MarkerThe Night The moon turned the color of a woundthat never quite closed.Smoke climbed in gray columns.Ironwood pillars split and leaned.Sparks rose like restless insects.The longhouse burned.No one asked the night for leave.