I’ve never seen The Crown
Hotel well-lit before
Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World
hovers over all of us with captions
for the hearing impaired
soon we’ll all be
friends plug in tune up sound check
Slurrr
All day sluggish I’m tired
but the bass drives a nail
it’s manna from the underworld
Nostalgia tickles the brain
a meet cute after a sick day
spliffs are sedentary
my feet are too hot
Have you ever thought about
Ella Yelich O’Connor
tuned low? Slowed to show
the rage in Royals
it came a slow burn
then our furrows switched
around to recognition
I can feel the ears fill
with fresh cotton wool
I’ve missed it but it’s
irresponsible to want it
let the music become shiatsu
melt the lead out of our veins
I began writing this poem as whilst at The Crown Hotel on 13 March 2020; our friends’ band SLUR was playing alongside a few other local sludgey bands that night. SLUR on first –
I’d never seen them or even heard their music before because these two gents live in Invercargill, plus it’d been a long time since I had the pleasure of watching friends play music at The Crown, so I was extremely pumped to be there. And then they blew me away.
Thanks, boys x
[soon to be published in the next edition of Poetry NZ Yearbook by MUP]