We need to stop for a moment
and take a breath to be able
to return to what we hoped for.
Like remembering childhood
and the ways we learn to grow into adults
even though we never really understand anything that we have been through;
playing football in the field next to the house after school,
or rent a game console set for a weekend night,
or spend the next day watching television cartoons.
Let's remember what memory has given us for the good things in the past
that we may now think of as something we can't get back.
It's true, that never happens again, even if we try,
but the feeling is no longer the same as childhood being put on things
that should now earn an adult title.
Let's laugh in silence at all the fond memories of childhood,
even though now voices of the pain of waking up are trying to come in and dominate.
Let's reminisce,
and lose ourselves
in the hope of the present.
Indonesia, 10th January 2022
Arif Aditya Abyan Nugroho