Between Neon Lights and the Curb
The night devours the clock, and I let it happen. The streets shine, wet from rain, as if someone had just scrubbed the stage clean. The neon flickers as if it cannot believe it is still burning. I take a deep breath: smoke. Perfume. Cold sweat and cheap gin. To my left someone laughs too loudly. A man pours his drink onto the curb. A woman in high heels balances between puddles.
Each step a promise, each glance a bluff. And above it all lies a rhythm that needs no music. The clinking of bottles. Voices like stabs. The rustle of banknotes changing hands.
The night is not a place. It is a beast. You must reach into its jaws to feel alive. Sometimes it bites. Sometimes it kisses. And no one knows beforehand which game it will play tonight. I keep walking. Past doors that open like portals into other worlds.
Inside: red light, dancing shadows, a heat that promises more. Outside: cold walls, graffiti, phrases no one ever finished.
A guy offers me pills, bright like candy. His hands tremble. I refuse. He grins, as if he had known all along. The barmaid calls out to me: Just one drink, just one night. But I know how "just" feels. "Just" has devoured many here already. So I stay outside.
And yet – there is something. An energy that carries me. I am not alone. I am part of the street. Part of the broken dreams. Part of this longing that covers everything like neon dust. Beside me stand the streetwalkers. Smoking, waiting, smiling. Queens of fleeting moments, each of them a promise of her own. Here I am someone nobody knows. Here I am free.
A girl stumbles, laughs, nearly falls, catches herself and shouts: “Not home yet!” Two figures kiss in the shadows as if the world were about to end. And maybe it will. But not now. Not here.
The night whispers in my ear: “Stay. Let go. Forget the morning. It does not belong to you.” And I obey. I walk further, deeper inside. My heart beats faster, not from fear, but from hunger. Hunger for this feeling that everything is possible. That everything is allowed. That all that matters is what happens now.
The night devours the clock, and I let it happen. Tomorrow it will deny everything. But tonight it belongs to me – and I belong to it. The beast has swallowed me. And still my heart beats in the rhythm of the night shift.
Musical Echo
Night Shift
A door to the outside...
...behind it lies a YouTube video, waiting just for you. Whether you want to see it is entirely your choice.
Night Shift – Club Remix
A door to the outside...
...behind it lies a YouTube video, waiting just for you. Whether you want to see it is entirely your choice.