At The Gas Station Toilet, Begging Kitari Poem by Violetta Simatupang

Come on Kitari,
Apologize. Your shoe touched its feet

A bucketful of water you threw by the well
splattered annoying a pair of water-sprites
paws as gruesome as man-eating crocodiles
from the refracted light you can see jaws
of a thousand teeth

Is your nape not pierced by standing hair
And a segment of your left arm growing goosebumps
Try examine those eyes
So empty. So dead. So concave
like eyes of blind creatures

Do you not feel the flame of another presence
in this small toilet – demonic
It seems to have found an unyielding enemy
following you all the way home

Kitari,
Its feet are a little sore because your new shoes
touched it in the manner of sucking painful marrow
incense herbs fish-heads in panacea. It is
haphazardly hurrying gliding
seeking another toilet

But beforehand it demands your apologies
for your shoe touching its bare feet
Come on Kitari. Just this once.
Please!