| Joan of Arc follows me around Australia
|
| I hear her voice in my head
|
| And catch bits of nature in my mouth:
|
| Rotting leaves, bird shit, mud, flood water
|
| I can smell what’s there on the inside
|
| Oslo, March: Quiet
|
| Words enter me from everywhere
|
| In Brisbane in December it was rain
|
| The rain was still rain
|
| We couldn’t hide from it
|
| I sought comfort between supermarket shelves and in cafes
|
| But the water followed us everywhere
|
| The water followed us everywhere
|
| And we put on the fan in the hotel room
|
| And it sounded like a shower
|
| Possessed, my leather shoes crumbled
|
| Fabrics unravelled around our bodies
|
| My skin breathed in and out
|
| I woke in the night to hear our pores heave
|
| I was a thousand little mouths, a thousand baby birds
|
| Eggs hatching, skin breaking
|
| I ran my hands over my body to hush them
|
| I cut my finger nails and cut off their beaks
|
| Is there anything on me that doesn’t speak?
|
| Is there anything on me that doesn’t speak?
|
| One night I spat in my sleep during the daytime
|
| I kept everything in, smoking cigarettes to dry
|
| A struggle inhaling in your honour
|
| My body is an effigy, a hearth of some kind
|
| I reach for the lighter
|
| Flames rise and press against my lips
|
| When I speak I hear your voice and catch
|
| Twigs and pieces of coal in my mouth
|
| When I speak I catch your disease |