Galeh Pramudianto
trans. by Brian A. Salmons
The Voynich Manuscript
our person stares at the verdant foliage
makes claims of rendering sky, land and water
from only vegetal cords and rootstalk beings
the faithful line up before it is safe
our person tries humming a remedy
but feels that with cords it’s not so easy
in this green, his blood courses restless
he takes a guess at the sense he hunts
while drug-puzzled and beast-baffled
into the green, he plugs his sparking pulse
and the lust queen takes form under grass
the roots don’t know who planted her.
Galeh Pramudianto is a writer from South Tangerang, Indonesia. He works in the education field and is one of the founders of Penakota.id, an online writer’s community. His poetry, short stories, and plays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies in Indonesia. He is the author of two poetry books, Skenario Menyusun Antena (2015) and Asteroid dari Namamu (2019).
Brian A. Salmons is a poet and translator from Orlando, Florida. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Eyedrum Periodically, NonBinary Review, Memoir Mixtapes, Ekphrastic Review, Sunlight Press, Poets Reading the News, O:JA&L, the Light Ekphrastic, E.ratio, and others, including anthologies from YellowJacket Press and TL;DR Press.