BRIGHT LIGHTS, LATE AT NIGHT

Bright lights, late at night

from the city streets so quiet

He woke up in a daze

with blood on his face

his memories erased.

Bright lights, random faces

long walks he barely recalled

as he went places

perhaps on several dances

loud music blasted, but what happened next?

Bright lights, fuzzy past and present

Why was he even wounded?

What had really happened?

Insta-stories were his only clues

blurred memories, a blitz attack

Which was fiction, which was fact?

Bright lights, crowded venues

faceless strangers and a lonely soul

unaware of some spike in his glass

before he physically crashed

to the concrete road, from that single push.

Bright lights, teary eyes

unprepared to let go of the past

A drunken text to the one he used to love

only to have no replies

Perhaps it was time to realize:

Some love stories weren’t meant to last

He’d done his part, tried his best

After that quick brush, a close call,

he knows better not to return

to that night he could’ve died!

Jakarta, 2 January 2023