Blues

"Why would you write of that girl you met in the concert,
And not me"

London simmers in July,
With all the rage of a bluesman
Hard done by a lover. Searing days
Morph into sultry nights, I see bodies
Swaying to soul, swing and funk,
Clinging to each other in a Shoreditch bar.
My eyes drift
From the barmaid to the doublebass
And back again, jousting with a few other pairs
En-route. Sometimes I sway, most times, fail to hit the target.
My mind, though, is terribly still,
5,000 miles away. Or closer.
On my mobile phone.

I don't want to leave the bar, not yet.
But I am alone. I am tentative, and
Have beer on my clothes.
I feel like having a smoke. I remember
The ash tray a stupid girl got me from Spain,
Knowing that I never smoke.
I am lurching in the road towards home, tempted
To lie down, to never reach,
When I see your reply to a text I sent
Two days ago. I call you. Suddenly, two days
Does not seem like a lifetime.
There's a swarm of memories in my head,
And honeyed love in your voice. The wee hours of morning,
Are still hot, but more temperate. I take refuge in you.

"Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
I want to love you so bad, I don't know what to do"

"Let's talk tomorrow", you tell me.
I submit after a bit of persuasion. Tomorrow
Never comes. Tomorrow is a promise,
That has "broken" written over it the moment it is made.
Intoxication with love makes one take that lightly.
"The thrill is gone", may be, but
I ain't free from your spell. SOS, I cry,
But somewhere between flirting
With alligators and beaches, 48 hours pass.
Perhaps, 48 is the new normal.

"Will text when I reach home"

Home, suddenly, doesn't feel like one.
London feels lonely already, and it's
Not even winter yet.
It is 5 a.m. on what looks like
A Sunday, colder than a cold heart.

Of You

Beyond shenanigans of darting eyes
Dazzling LED foam sticks, raining confetti

Grass, trampled underfoot, suffocating
In the blistering brew of dust, sweat, alcohol, ecstasy
And loneliness,
A silhouette, 5,000 miles away,
Or closer - storms right through me.
I am lighter than the laser figures
That patrol the sprawling compound
Catching unawares, darting eyes and palpitating veins,
Confining remnants of unresolved arousal
Into an eternal, Sisyphean loop.

I wake up parallel to the ground, floating
With Kaleidoscopic brass in my head, vaguely recall
The tune, and your face.
I see you behind her almost perfect body,
And spotless skin texture. We are not
Making efforts to conceal our glances.
I follow, dodging elbows, judgmental faces, and her
My fingers brush her skin while
You dissolve into wall of music that stands
Before me. I hurtle forward, crash into it
And come out bleeding into a rainbow chamber
Resonant with the echo of your zany laughter.

I follow the neon lights ending
In walls dotted with faces in your likeness. 
The air is infested with disorganized alphabets,
Traipsing from end to end, occasionally
Tracing your name. At times, mine.
I gather a few - your initials - make a pillow
And lie down, lucid dreams and all.
I feel you, the brass and your face.
May be I don't. I am losing myself, fading
Slowly with the rainbows.