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AFTER A LONG SEASON OF SORROW
Poem by Leni Marlina
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You walk the corridor of time,
where shadows bow, afraid to disturb your steps.
They recede—yielding space for the resonance you carry.
Longing strikes your chest,
fear drifts like leaves along an endless river.
You gaze at the world—without refusal,
absorbing tremors, drinking the wounds left behind.
Upon your skin, in the whisper of your wrinkles,
you inscribe names erased by history.
Letters quiver, cry aloud:
“You are still alive. You are present. You are enough.”
Time breathes slowly around you,
combing moments with unseen hands.
You stand—silent, yet unshaken—
facing a world that mocks you.
You are a flower blooming after a season of grief,
a stone remaining whole though the earth scorches half of it.
Tell the world:
“You exist. You stand. You preserve conscience.
And that is enough.”
Melbourne, Australia, 2011 – Padang, West Sumatra, 2025
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SEVERING FEAR
Poem by Leni Marlina
Shadows crouch, devouring your audacious steps.
Tyranny clings to the corner of the corridor,
biting walls, siphoning seconds from time.
Time trembles, dripping like shattered blood onto the floor.
Air chokes, screams through your body—yet you continue to move.
Your steps strike shadows,
teaching the silent corridor how to breathe.
Light seeps through fissures,
a blade severing fear itself.
And the shadow cries:
“I am learning… I am learning… I unravel.”
Melbourne, Australia, 2011 – Padang, West Sumatra, 2025
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IGNITING COURAGE
Poem by Leni Marlina
Spark of fire pierce the asphalt cracks,
roots crawling into the earth’s marrow,
leaving embers on the weeping soil.
Stones blush, wrinkle, swallowing the sun’s heat.
Wind claws at withered leaves, slipping beneath your skin,
kindling courage that refuses to bow to tyranny.
You stand—human and earth intertwined,
acting, igniting defiance, enduring.
The ground shouts: “You are enough!”
And the spark of fire laugh; fire leaps skyward,
mocking a world too often timid of truth,
too quick to compromise with greed and deceit.
Melbourne, Australia, 2011 – Padang, West Sumatra, 2025
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SHADOWS BOWING
Poem by Leni Marlina
Shadows bow, cling, scream.
Light pierces the cracks, striking your eyes.
Moments fall—shattering into a thousand shards.
The night longs to swallow you, yet you resist,
crying out with silence, with steps, with the glimmer you bear.
The shadows blush, light whispers:
“To be present is to refuse silence.”
You stand—silent, yet speaking,
becoming a spark that ignites courage in the voiceless.
Melbourne, Australia, 2011 – Padang, West Sumatra, 2025
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DUST THAT WRITES
Poem by Leni Marlina
Dust settles, clinging to your skin,
whispering words not yet born.
Light seeps through cracks,
inviting dust to script poetry in the air.
Bones, blood, sinews tremble,
becoming letters to a wounded world.
You stand, hands open,
teaching soul and earth to love,
resisting tyranny, becoming a wave that refuses to die.
Dust writes and laughs—
your life is sometimes water,
sometimes fire.
Melbourne, Australia, 2011 – Padang, West Sumatra, 2025
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SUN AND DUST
Poem by Leni Marlina
Sunlight penetrates the window,
embracing dust and your body.
Breaths become waves smashing into tyranny.
Dust writhes in the air,
brushing your face, carrying the scent of wet earth, the salt of the world.
You stand in the midst of it,
absorbing radiance, earth, and sky,
your body trembling—
and your heart speaks:
“Your courage is prayer.
Love is a weapon.
And now you understand:
to be present is to live fully,
to be present is to shake the world.”
Melbourne, Australia, 2011 – Padang, West Sumatra, 2025
