nestled in couches

nestled in couches
at the Saigon cabaret
are all the love songs

Notes: In Ho Chi Minh City (nee Saigon), there is a very active late night cabaret scene where young couples go to hold hands, smooch, and listen to music sung in French, Vietnamese, and English. These places are really hidden, well, you could say that about a lot of businesses across Vietnam, e.g., you may have to go through a luggage shop, then down an alley, then through someone's kitchen then up a narrow, twisting concrete staircase, being careful not to step on a cat, before you come to a small door that opens into the dimly-lit cabaret or coffeehouse. One of my favorite memories of my Indochina trip was one such place where the voice of chanteuse was wonderfully accompanied by the pretty, 20-something girls and boys languidly spread across couches in every nook and cranny of the place. Being there was an awakening of sorts for me in the sense that I started to understand how time is not linear but eternally happening, everything all at once...