Other Poem 1: Arundhati Bhande

Private Disco Party 

- Arundhati Bhande 

Do you remember that night after dinner?

When we made a disco in your bedroom? 

The light from our phone screens was 

enough to light the room 

And we dreamed up a disco ball

You closed your eyes shut 

I dressed up in my party best

A silk top and a maroon skirt 

You dressed in your comfy best

Chequered boxers and an old t-shirt 

Pretending like we had never met before,

but only for the first time in our disco 

Inhabited by two lone dancing souls

in a parallel universe shut-in by the window 

With the blink of an eye and a little twirl,

back into the bedroom, now your own

We sat down next to each other,

Listening to artists we had never known

We answered questions about each other

Answers that two strangers 

could have never known

Giggling at our silly drunken selves

Now, like wisp vanishing in thin air

the disco’s gone, so is the room

And two known strangers 

Sit opposite, in the real world, asking questions 

Do you remember that night after dinner?

When we made a disco in your bedroom?