A poem for Sapardi Djoko Damono
It’s the weekend And we’ve had enough of death

It’s the weekend
And we’ve had enough of death
Riding around in the 1970s
before the night is late
on the old Ducati
we chat about funny things
concrete things
fleeting things
And someone says
Do not go gentle into that good night
Every now and then
in the mirror I see
black Mount Merapi
making its fire
of changing times
its lava flow
signifying something
I do not know
I do not know
But someone says
Do not go gentle into that good night
There an old man
on the corner of Jalan Danau
is fighting off the rain
But we love the downpour
We love the drizzle
We love it pelting down
Tomorrow, you say, our orbit
Will not last long
And someone says
Do not go gentle into that good night.
2020
Goenawan Mohamad
—‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ from the poem of the same name by Dylan Thomas.