Distance

The pandemic has made me—and not only me—anxious about space and sensitive to distance. Maybe this is what the pandemic is shaping, slowly but surely: with these months-long rules about ‘keeping distance’, we are getting used to negotiating with space.

Goenawan Mohamad

September 20, 2021

I HESITATE. Enter? Don’t enter? The cafe is 4 x 7 meters square, with nine tables and 25 chairs. It is not too crowded, but busy enough. Some people have taken off their masks. 

I stand for three minutes in the virus-intercepting doorway. Enter? Don’t enter? I’ve come for the special coffee called Ki Hujan from the Sarongge forest, which is always available there. I don’t want to return home. Especially as it’s

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