A night out

Screeching cockies 

Plum staining the sky

We left it too late

Our breath, clouds 

And the lamplights whirred golden

We could hear the music from streets away

The pummeling of drum skins

And a sitar 

Rosy light from fires 

Underneath the looming gum trees

Shedding leaves and branches

They snuggled in, the two broken-off bits of me 

Swathed in wool and fur

Woodsmoke descended like a feather down quilt

And I breathed in its warmth 

I left them lost in dreams 

Filling my throat with too-cold beer

And my skull with fog

I taught my self to dance again, 

Surrounded by every generation

Children, mothers, great-grandparents 

Hips, knees, feet

Clapping the floor beneath me

Moving to the strains 

Of Eastern European polka

The world spun blood orange

And my memories gathered me back to myself 

Like the catching of poddy mullet in ocean pools

This new self, this older self 

All the days I’ve been in this skin suit

Breathing, moving, taking up space 

Faces laugh, make eye contact 

They know what this is

To be solitary and alive