Laila

Laila

Barefooted Laila smilingly strolled
the streets of Jatinegara in East Jakarta
She was not properly dressed
and the people like to behold
her shapely naked breasts

Children found it aberrant
and closed their eyes
with their hands
While drivers are not that shy
They had a wild fantasy:
"Oh God, if only she were not loony."

Women venders, were not comfortable
They murmured to each other:
"If she were my daughter
I would take care of her."

But, no. Laila is nobody's child
She came from an unknown place
or, perhaps, sprang out of the murky water
of the Ciliwung river

Some said until the age of five
Laila was a normal girl
In the nearby market place
she picked up rotten vegetables
to feed an old person
who said he was her parent

At the age of fourteen,
a street singer was Laila
begging in the trains
between Bogor and Jakarta

One day another stranger
taught her the joy of love
and the beauty of a plastic flower
Afterwards her condition improved very soon
What a dream, he told her
But, alas, it lasted only two full moons

Later on,
a middle-aged woman,
who claimed to be her mother,
came to take care of her
She furnished Laila with costly clothing
and artificial earrings

But the woman treated the maiden
just like a female goat
and sold her to a person
from the underworld

Since that fateful day
became Laila
an empty plastic bag
blown away by the wind
from a lightless area
to another

Laila became a slave of another destiny
At the beginning she wept her fate
but later she was no longer herself
Pointlessly she roamed the city

Smile she did frivolously
to everybody
along the way
along the day

- By Lilis Marliani

- Translated by TIS