izzy

The dogs are laughing at me and I’m sitting on my butt and my eyes sting but there is no way I’m gonna cry. I sit for a bit and look at their doggy-dog faces and I think about how it’s funny when me and my sister sing ‘who let the dogs out’ at them and hold their faces and they bark with us in the barking bits and we run around the backyard until everyone’s panting and tired. My sister’s not here to see me fall on my butt, she’s at netball training. I don’t like netball. It’s confusing. Like why can’t you run? I play soccer and next year we’ll have to be a girls-only team because under 12s isn’t mixed any more but I don’t really care. I look at the dogs and they look at me and even though their faces look almost the same as normal I can tell they’re laughing because their lips are pulled further back and their tongues are sticking out and their eyes are twinkling because they know I’m gonna try and do and do a 360 flip again and probably it’s not gonna work. I skate around in circles for a bit, do a few ollies and kickflips to show the dogs I mean business and then when I’m pretty sure they’re not looking I do it again, and I nail it and I wish they were looking.

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sarah

in the second before the beat crashes
you kick back your head to the grimy ceiling
& claw at the air with your eyes
half a second of reprieve and you’re soaring
then – slam and you’re plunging
& the cymbals are shrieking
& the lights scream red murder
& you blaze your way through it
spraying sweat & tongue & teeth
roaring madness into the microphone
beating the keys to a pulp with your fists
& jerking magnificent like a marionette dervish
you are fitting and sprawling in the quivering air
& you stagger back micwards
& you pant to the crowd
with your neck thickly corded with slick ropey tendons
you are lost, possessed, so full of the song
that the band appears conjured by the force of your will
& you howl & you rave & you throttle your words
& the music comes rushing like a lift full of blood
til at last, the fell beast is both conjured and conquered
the maelstrom is over
the battle is won
& you wipe down your face
& the feedback fades out

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