everyone’s here for the main act / decades-long devotion / or open curiosity / I / have come to buy a shirt / because I thought / GARLIC BOYS / would make a funny shirt / and I’m right / but then the opening band / a storm of girls / arrives / and the crowd’s / bobbing courteously / but everyone’s here for GARLIC BOYS / everyone / except me / and this boy here / in his violent trance / the breakdown / sets him off again / stomp / stomp / spin / thin limbs / snap-snapping / spine a question mark / questing for / well, what / did I come here for? / weary traveller / earplugs magenta / no one else is wearing any / it’s just not done here / and the boy’s not done yet / his hair, his shirt / like pirouetting skirts / the crowd opening / for him / for the opening band / frontwoman / growling with her storm-girls / I immediately fall in love with all four of them / the boy is in / another kind of love / beating his devotion / into the basement floor / into a wall of bodies / organic and so / violently alive / an architecture / my toxic masculine trait / is my love of death pits / skin man-sweat slicked / push / shove / push / shove / back, a body / in a wall of bodies / wearing good sturdy boots / see / the boy in his abandon / buffeted by palms / forearms / I touch him / touch him / touch him / Outside / in this quiet dark / I can’t recognise / anyone not in motion.
Featured photo supplied.
