Sleepless In London

Summer arrived today, spread her fingers through the skies, tossed her smile across the city’s dust-filled streets. Bare shouldered, I cycled along the river, secretly hoping for a breeze, some small relief from the heat. I navigated slowly, eased my way through the pedestrian sea of board shorts and flip-flops, sun frocks and designer tank tops. On the grassy verges of the old stone path, couples lay sprawled at all angles, red-faced picnickers converged, and all around me, excited laughter ebbed and flowed. “If only, all days could be like this,” I thought.

When night fell, I lay quietly in my room, on a bed without sheets. I peered into the darkness. Would I sleep tonight? Quiet. Be still. Be quiet. Sleep will come. I waited and listened; listened and waited. Outside, the familiar hum of traffic in the distance, a muffled lullaby of sirens and car alarms. 

A peculiar smell rose through the open window. “If that’s not the smell of a dead bull lying at the bottom of a waterfall, then I don’t know what it is,” I muttered to myself. And then my thoughts drifted to a time of school summer camps. Memories. I grasped at a handful of childhood dreams. Snapshots of heady days spent chasing waves, salt and sea whipping over sun-kissed skin. Ice cream and sticky watermelon fingers.

And somewhere in the street below, a car door slammed, and I rolled over onto my back. “What happened to cicadas?” I wondered. “What happened to that?”

A/N:  Hi Lovelies, I hope you are all well! I posted this piece earlier today over here on Medium, but wanted to share here too.  London has been blessed with some lovely blue skies recently, alas at night, it all gets a little sultry.  Have a fab week where ever you are on this beautiful planet! - T xo