Childrens' Laughter...

One of my favorite things to do
is walk across the pedestrian bridge
and down through the park by the river.
You start out on the bridge
with the wood planking scuffing
under your shoes.

As you walk along picking up speed,
a fluttering of pigeons' wings,
startled in the ironwork
as you pass under them.

The cars on the adjacent bridge
crossing the expanded metal grating
pass with a humming kind of moan.

Then you hear the first of the sounds of the fountain...
kinda splashing, slapping water on wet concrete...
and the the thud of bare feet
as the kids run and
squeal with laughter as they play.

The vague and faraway sounds
of the caliope plays
as the horses turn and plunge
in an endless circle of the merry go round.

Someone pounding a tinny beat
on the metal sculptures...
and I am carried far away from the stress and cares of my life...

In my mind I am in Indonesia,
and the Gamelan plays
the eternally mysterious sounds
of that place and time for me...
The metallophone drums of the Kecapi Sulung
in subtle counterpoint
to the gongs and bamboo flutes
that you can never get out of your head
once you've heard it...
and yet can't really describe.

The smells of Sambal and Satay
mix with the exhaust of motorbikes
as the street hawkers clamor for your business.

At the edge of everything is the jungle...
dark shadows within the world of brightly lit canopy...
and the riot of green tries
to reclaim what we have hacked and cleared for our existence.
Always nibbling at the edges of our world,
never letting us get too comfortable...

Back on the bridge
I round the turn and down the steps
towards the river below.
The smell of the wet, fishy rot
reminds me even more of that place
as the heat and humidity hangs in the air..

And all around
is the laughter of small children
as they play in the fountain
with the sound of the water on the wet concrete,
the hum of the cars on the bridge,
the caliopes' faraway melody,
and my own heartbeat thumping away at my temples.