Rendezvous

(Lines from “The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock” by T S Eliot )

‘

Unfortunately

I am nocturnal, not quite

used to the night but

I wear the dark like a raincoat

against itself; warding off

the cricket noises and the cold

We are safe now in the night’s

Monotonous shadows; a

Single-sheen that conceals

as it consumes

‘

Will you be waiting

at the usual spots cemented by

foot-prints and psuedo-names?

Tonight, the hybrid chatters of local gossip

will be drowned out when I

alone, circle the midnight

hawker’s greasy songs

Hidden by intensity of

purpose; I am invincible (invisible)

to the beer-frothed motion;

The doting invitations of

raucous open smiles; live-telecasted

on rivets against wall

‘

(I can sense them)

‘

When I am on my way

Histories, they stay still, mingle

with the unstable present. Behind

the caffeine-cover of the sleepless,

unholy trails of Hokkien oldies

and the whirr of ageless festive lights

the 80s. 70s. 60s

swatted away, or endured

now I am tiptoeing around them

the hems of my trousers lifted

from puddles that chill rising

into wind around my ankles

Oh, let me walk your darkest alleys

Though I can no longer

See my feet

‘

tonight I am reaching

for the beginnings

of you

‘

Once more I am out

In the openness and

Midnight

It passes;

You know how deeply I am

Lulled by you, your

Animal-senses are

most noxious

right now

(no time for senseless sashays,

they melt away

like a night’s work)

‘

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

the night is so young now

So young