the day i first smoked

Posted on by violeteye in English, Poetry
i remember the sun was setting the day i first smoked. we hid behind the water tank and i thought the ivy curled around its corroded poles never looked as pretty. i remember how the basketball court next to where we sat seemed as serene as a swimming pool and the damp walls glowed pink and orange and your shirt smelled like cloves and your eyes flickered every time you flicked your jonkoping matchstick. yes, you were already a chainsmoker and you chuckled when i choked. but i best remember feeling like i had acquired all the wisdom i needed for life after our p.e. teacher made us run like deer with his shrilling whistle and we threw our cigarette butts like scholars’ hats and you were rooting for me all the way.

i don’t think the sun ever fell for me that day.


Published by violeteye

Gratiagusti Chananya Rompas was born in Jakarta, 19 August 1979. She studied English Literature in Universitas Indonesia, Depok (2003) and received her masters in The Gothic Imagination from University of Stirling, Scotland (2005). She is one of the founders of Komunitas BungaMatahari, a mailing list-based Indonesian poetry community that have embraced many poetry enthusiasts with its catchphrase “semua bisa berpuisi” or, roughly translated, “poetry for all”. She is also involved in Selatan, a literary journal, and Paviliun Puisi, a monthly open mic event--both managed by her and her like-minded friends. She currently resides in Jakarta, trying to find balance between writing and day-to-day living.

12 thoughts on “the day i first smoked”

  12. Pingback: the day i first smoked | Insert Working Title Here

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s