My body—
a blueprint drawn in disappearing ink.
Rooms I never entered.
Doors that opened to fog.
They asked:
Where is your center?
But how do you answer
when every map you were given
led to someone else’s longing?
I slept beside you
like a tenant waiting for eviction.
Even your warmth
was measured, rented,
priced by the hour of your distraction.
Love was a language
we rehearsed in front of mirrors
but never used in conversation.
We grew fluent
in silence.
And now—
I walk through myself
like a stranger
checking for lights
that were never wired to begin with.
— Padang, 2025
(c) 2025
All rights reserved
Ardiansyah.DS was not born of words, but of pause—the space between two unfinished sentences. Rooted in Curup (Rejang) and shaped in Minangkabau, he studied literature at Andalas University (class of 1996). He writes not to explain the world, but to make peace with how it changes, unannounced. His poetry does not seek understanding, but offers quiet traces of loss, longing, and silence—reminders that light does not need to blind to be real, and that absence can be a form of presence waiting to be named.
Poetry Prairie 