Dawn Chorus/A Song Unsung

They dance to a tune I cannot hear—
Swirling in whimsical chaos,
barefoot and free

I stand at the edge of it all,
second-hand shop cup warm against my palm
So separate to their reverie

This is not a world I understand
A universe suspended, in the forever of this hour
I am bound by my fear, steadfast and silent

Yet something draws me in
Nestled deep in my chest
Further than I would dare to look,
    Humming the same tune

I step a cautious, sock-covered foot on the tatami mats
You grab my hand when my heel touches the floor
I grip it for dear life; then loosen out of shame
You only hold on tighter; Unwilling to let me go

We are dragged across the floor
by the movement of soul
A line of bodies chained together,
    snaking around the resting crowd

You do not know the steps,
And neither do I 
    Pulled in by a riptide at the last moment
        So we skip the kicks, and jump out of time,
And land on each-other’s feet

Your smile glows brightly
    in the low orange light

I see it reflected in her eyes, on his lips,
    Kaleidoscope joy across a hundred strangers 

You are beautiful—
Beads of sweat on your brow,
Hair sticking to your skin
With your eyes wide, I see us all within them
    Reflected out and out and out 

My mind makes no sense of it,
    I know it somewhere deeper

I narrowly escape his outstretched hand
    As he skids across the floor behind me

I can hear the worn-down soles of my shoes
    Thudding against the ground as I run

Elephant steps keeping me grounded,
I swing my body away from the thin plastic chairs
They have just careened into

My grin is feral and sharp
    I have become small again
        Under the old boughs of a eucalyptus 
            Caked in mud, with dirt on my cheek
Veins filled with pure light,
            Burning quick and bright in the afternoon sun

I blink myself back in time
I see her there, on the empty dancefloor
Doubled over, hands on her knees
Laughing loud and true

And though the Chorus tells me not to
I turn back to Eurydice 
See him rolling over the linoleum 
    With a schoolboy smile
    A hand on his stomach, a gleeful breath on his lips

I am caught by it, the unheard melody,
Warm, in the evening breeze

With my back turned away,
I crash full force into you
    We tumble down together, all limbs 
        and shining eyes

We are throwing lake grass into his hair
We think he does not notice
Even as our whispers grow
as loud as speech
    Delight our microphone

We scramble to find each other, moments to midnight
Magnetised to each other across the crowd
My back is to yours, your foot against his calf,
    Her head on my shoulder

We are cramped together in the marquee
Singing louder than our lungs can carry us
In a state of half-dressed majesty 
    The glitter on your face has made its way to mine

We are marked down in history
On Sony90x camcorder
With awkward smiles
    and love undimmed

I finally shatter open
    on the damp morning grass
A song left unsung spills from my chest
Like the new year’s sun
That coats the black vinyl hills cut against the horizon
    And us

Golden and dazzling
Awake beyond sanity
Entangled together under sheer headscarves
Covered by the quiet euphoria
    of a new dawn

About the author

Key Stone (any/all) is a folk punk musician and poet based in Meanjin, on the unceded lands of the Jagera and Turrbul people. Key writes to a variety of themes but often finds himself strung on motifs of grief and desire. He self-publishes poetry on Instagram at @starsofstclements, and has been published in Issue 1 of Transitive Rag, which can be found here: https://trans-rag.com/. Key co-hosts a monthly poetry night in Meanjin called Echoes from the Cave Inn that has been running since October 2022. It runs on the first Tuesday of every month in Wooloongabba, and you can find more info at @echoes_fromthecave or by emailing echoesfromthecaveinn22@gmail.com