Poem for My Wife
This morning when we woke up
The meat cages still locked us up*
We took a bath so they’d look nice
Had our breakfast of eggs and rice
Wore the the stuff that Pinurbo**
From his father once borrowed
Braved the traffic never cool
Sending our daughter to school
Day by day we replay the ritual
While yearning for the ephemeral
Break to again drop us by
After that long ago goodbye
To brief childhood and fantasies
Of life, when things looked easy
We pray patiently a day will come
When our only kid a lady becomes
Till we sit by this front verandah
Time overflowing us, like a blunder
Then the best thing to do, my dear:
Is to exist not or escape from here
Notes:
* Meat Cages (“Sangkar Daging”) is also title of a poem by a West Sumatran poet Gus Tf.
** Joko Pinurbo is an Indonesian poet known for his witty poems gravitating on pants.
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