This is the poem You, Me And That Chair by Johannes Winata, read by Trivita Tiffany Winataputri. The poem was the inspiration for the short film of the same name which recently won the ReelOZInd! short film festival. For more information about the festival click here.

YOU, ME, AND THAT CHAIR(translated from Bahasa Indonesia)Maybe these are the last moments we can spend together Going about our daily lives without worrying that tomorrow we might no longer see each otheror spend the night talking about the football match on TV,or watch you solve math formulas and finish your schoolwork for the next day.The dining chair you always sit on will lose the warmth of your body;it will miss its duty of carrying your weight,which has grown ever since your first tooth came in and then fell out, one by one.It has witnessed how you learned to eat on your own,then faithfully listened to your stories and adventures that day and even your tales of first love,as usual, expressed through poems colored by romance.Perhaps it will be hard for us to see each other every day in the same house,for tomorrow, when you take your steps away from this place,there will be much you must do to pave your future.There are still mountains to climb,seas to cross,and wild forests whose secrets you must uncover.For that I let go of our time together,so that you may live through it all with passion, a gift that life can offer.Meanwhile, I must continue finishing what remains of my life,like the rambutan tree that must keep bearing fruituntil the time comes for it to fall to the ground,facing the change of seasons,or wither away, no longer able to draw water from the soil that once gave it life.Perhaps one day we will long to meet again.But your time and mine are like the sea water that reaches for the sand touching only for a moment before reeling back and vanishing into foams of memoriesI will keep waiting for that moment,even if it comes only at the edge of my final breath.

Johannes Winata

Jakarta, 26 June 2018