People Slice of Life

It was last Thursday night, the meeting held at Bakoel Koffie, Senopati. I arrived around 20:30, a bit tired that night, hoping for a comfortable couch or bean bag to rest my back there. Inez told me that Difa has arrived and she couldn’t find anybody familiar.

It took only one stair then Difa called me, stopped my eyes from scanning all over the café. She was sitting on rattan couch (not a couch I expected) in the corner of the outdoor part, enjoying her time writing about traffic, a topic from previous meeting.

The café was quite nice, the building separated into 3 main areas, indoor, outdoor (for smoking) and a nice gallery between. After chit chat with Difa, I let her continue writing, then I went indoor, enjoying air-con while exploring some artworks in gallery.

Took about 30 mins for Difa to finish writing, I asked her to move indoor for the sake of getting comfortable by air-con. We moved to the table next to the bar. There, I told her the idea, an idea which needed both of us working together. It was about creating a piece of writing, each of us has to write a line, in turn. You have a minute long for each turn to create a line. The game finished if the line reached the end of the page. It was a funny start, we were giggling and nervous at the same time.

We randomly choose a line from the exhibition catalogue, continue it with our 1-minute lines. Here it is, a 14:18:06 time work, please enjoy:

Salah satu instalasi yang paling menonjol dari seni karya dalam pameran ini adalah “Factory and the Lonely Tree”.
Aku terkesima bagai baru terbangun dari déjà vu.
Rupa rupa rupa dalam kilasan, betahkah ia disana?
The Lonely Tree, pohon dalam imaji yang dapat dengan jelas menggambarkan cerita itu.
Jadilah sesuatu dalam suatu waktu, dia tak berbayang, bergerak dalam bunyi-bunyian elektronik.
Gesekan ranting-ranting adalah nyanyian bisu.
Katanya sungai di belakang sana itu biru dan tajam, binarkah matanya?
Atau hanya fatamorgana dari tipuan ingatan?
Mudah, menit lima dari kurang diingat harusnya,
lari lari lari berpacu dengan arus sunyi dari sungai palsu binaran mata yang mungkin tak pernah ada.
Rusa coklat, kakinya belang hitam, tanduknya tak bercabang, terbang kesana kemari, menggangu burung.
Namun dia bukan kamu, bukan pula aku.
Andai aku ingat rasa ini, rasa capai, setelah seribu dua ratus tahun aku samar-samar.
Menggenang di ingatan dan getir pilu tusukan ranting pohon yang kesepian di sebuah pabrik tua.
Hahaha hati tertawa, hihihi apa ini bunyi, hehehe tahukah ini rame-rame.
Biru, coklat, dan pahit, namun tak bisa kulepaskan.
Perihnya dan di tempat itu pula tangan kanan luka.
Lalu hanyut dalam putaran waktu yang tak bisa diam.
Kiri kanan kiri kanan kami menikah dalam bait.

If you felt something or if the writing trigger some ideas, please leave a comment. Really interesting to know how far this piece could inspire you.

Salam
William