your face white outside my window behind my back since dawn it has always been thus the soul footprints in the mud of the heart words echo in infinity of space my hand trembles as I rip a poem out of thin air your eyes my last memory of you burn inside me your faceContinue reading “Sin”
Category Archives: Indonesian and other languages into English
Sodom and Gomorrah
God neck deep in tax files election news profit shares the new neighbour asking for clean water. An all-night ball ribbons everywhere a trumpet screams a pale face, sleepy, I can’t see my ashtray from the smoke did someone knock on the door? You? Yippeee!! Rock-rock-rock. The hour hand points at three. Subagio Sastrowardojo (FromContinue reading “Sodom and Gomorrah”
The Distance Between You & Me
Our father who art in heaven, let’s not move closer, you and I, I’ve lost you on the white horizons. Or is it that the black forest has blinded me. I’m only happy when birds sing on branches and deep in the valley, a Kliwon market hums for me. I know I can only hearContinue reading “The Distance Between You & Me”
Gott ist Tot
No gods in these swamps. A crow sharpens his beak on a black branch And the sun stops above the corpse of a priest stabbed inside his own temple. The gods are dead. A snake slings onto the lips of a well, and drinks from the mouth of a whore smiling at her own reflection.Continue reading “Gott ist Tot”
One Afternoon Before the War
for Hans & Joosye Ah! I see what you’ve got in your hands an afternoon in the world of LAN a sealed blue radio (The night returns for an encore inside a tomb.) Pray for finesse, on the branch of the arborio strip it, sing it, fake it come, wing it, into the river! NoteContinue reading “One Afternoon Before the War”
1945, February 14
*Supriyadi led the PETA rebellion in Blitar He saw how the Japanese forced farmers to hand over all the rice they had, even though they were running out of food, down to sewing tree barks into clothes, dying as romusyas, etc. He hated the Japanese so much he decided to go ahead with his rebellion.Continue reading “1945, February 14”
Kampung
If I want to get out of this country, Sis, it’s because the air here is stuffed with dead thoughts. Nothing’s changed, just like back then at the kampung. People are busy setting up rules for alley traffics night patrols and registrations at the kemantren. Everyone wants to have his say on morals, politics, religionsContinue reading “Kampung”
The Story Of An Old Man Who Died This Morning As Told By A Friend Who Said He Will Be A Poet One Day
This is sad. An old man at the intersection, dead, next to the traffic lights. His belly, concave like glasses for the near-sighted. A fly, knee deep in sores full of pus, electric yellow like the colours of the prostitutes’ clothes. I’m standing next to him. And I’m thinking. Am I going to end upContinue reading “The Story Of An Old Man Who Died This Morning As Told By A Friend Who Said He Will Be A Poet One Day”
Honey Bird
A purple Bird Breaks honeycombs Petals of flowers Pink The top Of the Dadap Tree: the bird Thin-winged Crook-beaked Grey black leaves Tremble Branches Give way when The beak The wing suddenly Swerve Wind on its Tail. The ends of Branches Blue. (F Rahardi, from Kompas, 7 May 2006, p. 30)
Re: City [2]
this city is full of legs young, clean-skinned, wild the legs of a golden afternoon 6 january 2003 jakarta in my head (ode_wallad a.k.a. Edo Wallad in Antologi Bunga Matahari, Avatar Press 2005, Jakarta, p. 146)
Divagyrations 