Fox Footprints/Java

by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

For works with similar titles, see Java.

Java

Everywhere the fresh green of rice in the terraces, with the herons perched on the mud walls,And the roads like tree-bordered bridges between the fields;The huge ruins of the Hindu faiths, where meek Buddhas sit throned on broken lotuses:The neighing of little stallions in silver-trimmed harness:The straight backs and beautiful breasts of the smiling brown women:The long hours after rice table spent reading behind the mosquito nets while the lizards watch from the ceiling:Wild hill-nasturtiums thickly carpeting a pine wood:The swaying of one's chair while the eight-man squads of bearers are racing one another down a narrow trail:The tentacled cone of the Bromo rising out of the expanse of the Sand Sea:Orchids and tree-toads.