Author: 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.

Log #22

Posted on by violeteye in Dream Logs

my dad, sis and i went to the movies. in the middle of the film, we left the studio and got in to the elevator. one or two strangers were already in it. we were going down when suddenly the thing shook like crazy. i pushed the communication button to report the problem and i think i heard the operator said something like, “we can’t identify your position.”

our elevator still shuddered, but this time i felt like i was in the inside of a bird. after a soft thud, it stopped and we knew we had landed somewhere. the doors slid open, revealing a not-too-pretty meadow.

we walked out and found a gorge with a small creek underneath. somebody was about to fall down and my dad started to walk toward him to save him. i told him not to because i had a vision that the man would trick him and pull my dad into the creek.

i can’t remember whether or not my dad complied.

Log #21

Posted on by violeteye in Dream Logs

i was a vampire, running away from my flock for reasons i now can’t remember. i flew and flew above the city’s streets and highways, alarming people along the way. the strange thing was, they frightened me too and i didn’t think i wanted even a drop of their blood. i attempted to fly higher but failed. i wasn’t sure whether it was because of the wind or vampires were never built to fly above a certain altitude.

not long after, i was flying above a small avenue. i tried to hide in a tree but i always slipped and made myself exposed to the passersby below. to protect myself, i put on a threatening face and i could see as well as feel the fear in their faces, even under the helmets of motorcyclists.

while i was struggling with the stupid tree, i saw a military truck drove by on my side of the street. sitting on the back was a handsome officer who could pass for a movie star and he smiled at me. i was so amazed – there was this human being who wasn’t scared of me and i wasn’t scared of him either. i felt almost in love.

i don’t remember what happened next. all i know i was in my room, tears on my face, holding on to the door to defend it from the attack of my fellow vampires. i was losing for its bolts had been disengaged and i could see archaic hands reaching from behind the trembling door.

i jumped again to a different scene. this time i was running on a pedestrian walk with a boy. i think he looked like M but i remember his face kept changing. we carried duffel bags and at some point we dropped the bags and ran without them. but only after a few steps, we fell over on the pavement.

my friend pointed out to me a sign on the shop in front of us that said “scratch to model”, which meant if you wanted to work as a model you have to scratch several panels on the door, which looked like those things you need to scratch on your mobile phone vouchers.  i remembered thinking i needed the money badly so i stood up and began scratching.

then we saw people searching our bags. i stopped scratching and we ran quickly to stop them. i saw my friend’s bag was already empty.

the next thing i knew i was either having sex or had just had sex with my boyfriend. as it is in all my dreams so far, sex is never graphic.