Absorbed

By Parv Agrawal

Mid-winter. Chattering teeth

surrounded by spent fog, sighed out

and cigarette-scented heat.

Intense red is scratched around the traffic

It blinds the eye and screams.

You feel the liquid light now, 

but it does not enter

like before.

Rain drowns the sound of drums 

and the riffs of electric guitar. 

Car horns shout 

and the sleepless city charges.

This time, the noise outside

stalls at your skin.

You’re not what you used to be.

You’re engulfed to become a part of it. 

But you don’t resist.

You let it sink in; it covers you

Like a wool blanket, in winter

that knows you.

You submit.

You dissolve.

By Parv Agrawal