Listen to Carolyn read “Underground, Outer Space”.

 “Our music is like a punch in the face”

“It’s good for you”

     They open the act and I sputter

Laughter trapped in my throat

  People spill in

Beer spills on the floor

Don’t drink and dance

My knees knock against the stage

        The barriers left

To make room for us

A red room flooded with people

Space filled with stale heat

Underground, time is standing still

Red and black and hot, hot

Peel back a sweater

In a busy cave

The men all look the same

Long dark hair and disco pants

A man appears on the stage

Inches away

Shorter than I expected but still

I’d kiss him

He calls to us

Mel-Bourne

We laugh with this medium-sized man

Doc martens, sunflower blazer

Tucking his hair behind his ear

“I can feel your spirits filling the room”

Alcohol, enthusiasm, both

 I lost my head in the crowd

With a girl

   Glitter in her mohawk like snow on Mount Buller

Two headless girls twisting and shouting  

We’re on fire, underwater

Sharing the same words

Shouting the same breath

Outer space in a hot room

For two short hours

The comedown

An irate taxi driver  

Count down the minutes  

Until the next night

Hysteria, hopeless and

Giggling over two pints of beer and

Counting streetlights