People Buy Watches In Kota Kinabalu Poem by Chai Jones

People buy watches in Kota Kinabalu

It sounded like an owl
he said we should ‘up the pace'
as we had a bit to go
Gunung Api would be hot and wet and slippery
we must start descending by eleven
and leave camp before dawn
‘It's my father's frog'
‘well it's not just his, it's for all of us'
the river was rocks as we crossed
the trees tighter and talking
hanging with green viper, tiny scorpions abundant

‘my father stopped working in the forest
when he heard the frog first time
straight away turn and head home
we knew he would come
across our little bridge
just as we lit the lamp and the forest voices came'
I thought of the frog as a conductor
then realised
It was the six o'clock frog

after the climb the river was chest high
we crossed and tied a rope for the others
the grinding whine of chainsaws in the distance
branches moving downstream
fast in the muddy water

its song silenced
the forest is gone now
lost to the sticky smell of burning, petrol and palm oil
and people buy watches in Kota Kinabalu