Peaking And Troughing Poem by Kaushik Shankar

Bangalore was new and exciting to him
like a lover's first chance
Booze, Freedom and Rock and roll
and Mary Jane's first dance

At the party, she was kind and free spirited
and he was cockeyed and rambunctious
where a whisper and a touch turned into a kiss
like a chorus moving seamlessly into a melodic guitar solo

She swooned like he was a member of the Beatles
and he had a hold on her like a castle made of sand
as words turned into art and prose into poetry
and restaurant and bar owners welcomed them
as if they were the prom king and queen
where they slow danced to a song
that never seemed to end

It was beautiful, quirky and underrated
like an art house film that failed at the box office
and rousing like the adrenaline rush from a meth party for skinheads
yet sordid, like a spittle on Mona Lisa's painting
as keen judgement vanished quicker than a drunk blonde's clothes

Three months seemed all of three minutes
as a whisper and a touch turned into a goodbye
in the dead of a moonless night
as she boarded a slow train to Pune
as summer receded into monsoon
like a thinly disguised smile
and Bangalore began to grow on him
like mold on a sultry July evening