I'd Romance You

By Chahat Gupta

I’d romance you with the sloppiest of songs With cherry lips and faint scents With stares seeping into your eyes With words and without them too With careless fingers and careful intents Dangerously close yet safely at rest In silence and in chaos around you alike In deep breaths and breathlessness In sleepless nights and long days While you question who I am Until you get the answers While you fumble through your thoughts Until you give up and give in While the world around spins fast Until we slow dance into its lost existence I’d watch you through my smoke rings Inebriated, circled for me Kiss you in the farthest alley in my favourite bookstore

Amidst the whiff of old paper I’d send you postcards when you’re far Get you Amber scented candles

And hum soft songs in your ears when near I’d write couplets for you

Then scribble them on your arms Tend to the knots in your head

The unsettling worries of your heart Call me a hopeless romantic or a lunatic all the same But this will always be the way I’ll truly love

And I promise you’ll always remember my name

By Chahat Gupta