Linus Suryadi AG (1951-1999), who died tragically at the age of 48, was a  promising poet and prose writer. He belonged to a literary generation which made Indonesian regional settings the focus of its writing.

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Poetry, fleeing

Dennis Brutus

Now a new greasy-black

smoke spirals evidence

of our new century's horror:

among other obscenities

poetry's image, winged horse

Pegasus* is pretext for atrocity:

children's charred corpses smoulder

near puddled oilfields; compassion

has vanished, swirled away in fumes,

Earth's song, Poesy, has fled, is fleeing:

Surely some hearts have turned to stone,

must be, already dead.

*  The winged horse of Greek mythology, Pegasus, a symbol of creativity and poetry, was also used by the oil multinational Mobil (now part of Exxon Mobil) as its logo.

*Third World Resurgence No. 317/318, Jan/Feb  2017, p 60