Ilustration for Leni Marlina's Poem "Night at the Indonesian Heroes's Cemetary". Pic. Source: Starcom Indonesia's Painting Collection No. 46 by AI
Night at the Indonesian Heroes' Cemetery
Poem by Leni Marlina
1)
That night, darkness hung heavy in the sky,
I walked through the silent corridor,
Traversing rows of cold, still tombstones.
Beneath the pale glow of the moon,
The gravestones resembled bones
Peeking from the earth's womb,
Awaiting me, swallowing me in eternal silence.
The wind whispered, carrying the breaths of heroes
From an unseen world,
Slipping into my ears, my heart, my bones,
They rose from the stiff ground,
Their eyes glowing like embers ignited
In a space frozen by time.
2)
One by one, their figures emerged
From the thick darkness,
Their clothes tattered,
Their greatness wrapped in dust and soil.
"Why do you come to our night?"
They asked in voices echoing like whispers,
"The night where history does not sleep,
Where we never truly die."
I shivered, my body trembled,
Yet my steps pressed on,
As if drawn by the gravity of the past,
Moving towards them, the unseen guardians.
3)
They smiled, but that smile
Was a broken one,
Their faces cracked like parched earth,
Wounds gaping on hands that once wielded weapons.
"Our love for this land,
Is a love written in blood,"
They spoke,
"The red sun you see each morning,
Is us,
Burned for the light that you breathe."
