Summer’s sting is sharp when the sun dips out of reach. It falls through me like sand in a sieve. In the sticky heat of January, I tried to gather it, holding it lightly with my fingers splayed. Wavering on a tightrope, I spilled the itchy grains over everything. We cried and cried as I tried to sweep them up, gathering pieces until all the trees dried up and turned red. Before it could be caught, summertime drifted off and we never spoke again. My room was so hot that night, it was a feeling I couldn’t quite name.
~
Where do you see yourself? I think I saw you in a song, but maybe I was hearing the lyrics wrong. I think I saw you in my reflection, but maybe it was the way my hair sat that day. I can’t wash out the sand.
~
There’s a heatwave and your voice floats through me like a half-forgotten dream
Like that song The World Is as Soft as Lace, this room makes me think of a sunny day on the beach with my friends
This season feels like a sigh, but my mouth’s taped over
It’s a heatwave and
It’s a heatwave and we went to the pub today
Looking back at you when I leave it feels like a race back to the sun
Where do you see yourself?
It’s a heatwave and I see myself in your image
It’s a heatwave and the air sticks to me like sand
On Boxing Day it’s humid and we’re eating sausages in bread
Tomorrow we fly to Tassie
It’s a heatwave and I’m not sure where I fit into all of this
It’s a heatwave and we’re headed to the coast
Sunlight dances on the dunes and skates along the water
We dive up and down like fish
It’s a heatwave and I’m in heaven
It’s a heatwave and I wonder where I am and maybe even where you are
Bending forward into arabesques, our hands fail to touch in the middle
Whirling around in circles now, this room becomes unrecognisable
It’s a heatwave and we’re all cramped into a bathroom stall and giggling
It’s a heatwave and some angry people are pounding on the door
‘Some of us actually need to go’
Laughing out a sorry, five of us spill from a narrow cubicle into the party
It’s a heatwave and it’s already May
It’s a heatwave and I’ve forgotten your name
It’s a heatwave and isn’t it funny?
How everything looks the same year on year.
It’s a heatwave and I wish it wasn’t
The house is too hot and a fan won’t cool us down
It’s a heatwave and there’s so much left to ask, like—
—Did you see it?
I hope you hear it for me
In the cooling air after 10pm
At the start of my favourite song
Bare feet hitting hot asphalt
I heard it,
Crashed onto worn cotton
Arms thrown back and pressed down
It’s a heatwave and I hope you hear it for me
In the sun shining backwards through a cold glass
On my front lawn
In these rigid chairs
In someone else’s words
In my own,
It’s a heatwave and I hope you hear it for me
It’s a heatwave and I hope you see it for me
It’s a heatwave and
It’s a heatwave and we went to the pub today
