Ephemeral Revelry

Artwork: Maddy Watson

Some nights we have no inhibition.

Away from sterile rooms with book-lined walls

The slow drumming of deadlines 

Breaths of scholastic agony

Away from our mothers and our fathers

The blanket of reason burnt

Mischief in place of calm

When the sun shuts her eyes

When the quiet starts to shake

It is time for us to go

Our weekly wake 

 

Evening skin is beautiful.

Tiny skirts, lashes and perfume

Tall shoes, lipstick and jewels

Livers filled with nectar

Lungs tickled by vapour

Screaming over music and jumping up to the ceiling

Laughing in the mirror and stumbling on carpet

Words slurred

Blood dancing in our veins 

Oh, to feel this alive everyday 

 

The kingdom outside lures us onward.

A palace to be together and alone

Loud and sickly and warm and cosy

A cure

For heartache and worry

No grief

Only glory 

Faces twist and gleam 

We all fall in love 

If just for a second 

With strangers and with each other 

The world spins 

And we rush to mend it 

 

Then we fade away.

Floating back as the hours grow

To the beds in our own private taverns 

Heads swimming and mouths dry

Dreams we won’t remember

Versions of ourselves veiled before daylight 

Eyes shut and bodies sink 

And with that goes the freedom 

So rich and so ethereal 

Here for a moment 

And gone the next.

We acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which Woroni, Woroni Radio and Woroni TV are created, edited, published, printed and distributed. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge that the name Woroni was taken from the Wadi Wadi Nation without permission, and we are striving to do better for future reconciliation.