Mountain Temple, Bali

Mountain Temple, Bali

Above the caldera the temple seems to have sprung
direct from the mountain's groaning skull -
no way to tell, in dripping cloud and shifting mist
where nature ends and artefact begins. All is vague:
doorways are half-guessed shadows; moss velvets
the weathered sightless faces of unknowable deities.
A trick of the sulphur-scented cloud or of the mind
mutes all sound of tourist buses, hawkers entreaties:
only the steady tap of the masons' devotions,
and our muffled tread on moss-grown emerald stone.

Later in Kuta we are snared in chaotic traffic:
Australian footballers have blocked the street
with a blue ziggurat of Carlton beer cans,
a world record for a day's consumption.