How Are You, My Friend Who Drunk By Song? Poem by Imam Setiaji Ronoatmojo

~lp~

how are you, my friend who drunk by song?
the outside weather is not good
reluctant to leave the house
while the cable television broadcast of anxiety
perforated shipwreck
wind out of the nest with the birds

'hunt down the song let it be a poem' you said

but I can not forget
that authenticity is a rose in a vase
faithful wife whether to replace the water?
authenticity is not a pet dog
lost howled every night

but a tears every time the lovers hands who warned
sheet to be filled by daily struggle

the rover isn't nobody
but the true lover who is ready to land even the ashes
was lost when the clouds turned into a cloudy
and the metal rainy override mother's cheek
the country is burning
ship about to sink
do our heart have a thousand already blinded by a thousand needles
while trembling hands to the clouds?

'hunt down the clouds let it be a painting' you said

how are you, my friend who drunk by song?
portrait of grief at the open sky
an infestation of insects of lead pollution
Jakarta may no longer safe for you
I sadly could not come to listen
your longing singing on ancestral lands
and hands suddenly aging
20 years of writing
20 years of writing
was never able to finish the song.

'hunt down the song let it be a poem' you said

how are you, my friend who drunk by song?
hoarse voices of the ancient chest
is the cracked ceramic who missed
hand to patch it

(2001)