Cry Merdeka! (May26)

BELUM 
MERDEKA, 
PAK!!!
on the rail-bridge over the Code river at Tugu station.
         The common cry the world over: – Waiting on Freedom, Pak!!! (You Fuck!)
         Faded colour: it was not aimed at the present man-of-the-people, President Jokowi. One presumes there was nothing like it in evidence during the Suharto era, though that might be wrong. In Sing of course with CCTV coverage the consequence would be immediate arrest, legal process (shackled with leg-irons) and imprisonment. For disrupting social order and defacing government property, at a guess, 8 weeks, possibly with a couple strokes of the cane for good measure.
         Excuse the author a momentary little exhilaration this morning, dear Reader, at the sighting. A few short moments were needed beneath the inscription...

        Never mind the vain plea over the dirty, broken pavement, where only barefoot & ragged passed; never mind the futility. 

        The unaided deciphering was one reason for a little cheer; and then after the long term in the northern polis of blank, clean and freshly painted walls. Sigh…

        Otherwise,  language acquisition continues to proceed at shamefully snail pace. Questions too hanging regarding future habitation and prospects. Trieste, the original destination almost five years ago, stands like a chimera on the horizon... Montenegro a ferry ride away; or road-trips through Slovenia & Croatia. The heartland. Crossing the Dinaric Alps—Lika, Bosnia & Herzegovinia—to the bays of Boka... In an earlier age three months on foot would have accomplished the feat. With the body retaining its strength, might it still be possible, perhaps?... 

        Difficult meanwhile to tear away from here, broiling heat and all.