The Radio I Switched Off

By Lyrikline Collaboration Poets

Published 1 January 2021

By Dorothea Rosa Herliany
Translated by Mona Zahra Attamimi.

it’s like this, i’ve laid a cast-iron bed within your chest.

i’ve created narrow cracks, they are my love-chamber.

one day, it’ll be crammed with songs and tears.

a soft moan, a startling scream. and you’ll send me

away to a foreign land - with a bang and the sound

of the wind on your breath.

it’s like this, i’ve laid a garbage-can within your brain.

i’ve created clumps of matter, they are the wasted corner.

one day, it’ll be crammed in with what’s left over. by now that

narrow space is suffocating with stories and calamities.

moments ago, we were deceived by love. you blasted me

with your cock. i’ve laid the worms there. when the time

comes, be ready for them to prune the leaves of your heart.

this is how we were: a future laced with hopes and promises.

one day – within your brain, within your chest, within

your abdomen – i’ll plant the carcasses of worms. one day,

you will harvest the butterflies.

1993