go-to room

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

There are times 

to get away from rooms

that are lived in by humans

even if they are, or especially

if they are, as they say,
rooms with character.

A bare room with white walls and a window,

never lived in, is all.

Don't mind 

cellar spiders with spindly legs

watching delirious moths

knocking themselves on the tube light.

Lizards darting around

flicking their tongues at flying spots.

Don't like musty; open the windows.

Don't like dusty; sweep and mop.

Shower.

It is a warm still night.

Switch off the lights.

Sit on the red oxide floor

facing the window, naked,

like a Botero painting.

Sip the wine straight from the bottle

Feel the weight of it on the wrist.

Swigging would be easy and quick.

but it's a leftover from our last evening.

But that's not why I sip.

I am ruminating.

The stars overwhelmed by

the ambient glow thrown up by humans.

I lick the mouth of the bottle.

Sniff deep at the remnant fumes.

Lie down on the floor.
Let the bottle roll off.

Feel the light breeze
beginning to stir the leaves outside

shifting the humid air inside.

I turn on my side and fall asleep

with my arm folded under my head.

I rest easy in empty rooms

not colonised by human minds.

© 2020 Padmavani Karkera

Written in response to Poetics: Make some room at https://dversepoets.com