Blue mountains regrowth after black summer. Lone figure stands on hillside.

You the restless reveller
Maia Elesi

you the restless reveller
of wild untamed ways
shall dance the ragged dances
of earth in her dismay

and you
the bearer
of strange and ragged ways
shall sink into the silt and earth
and bear the force of flood
within your wild eyes of mirth

breathe into your lungs
the saturated dirt
breathe it in until your nerves
are wild with the hurt
‘til it layers in your body
and soil fills your mind
‘til your eyes have no more salt to give
and sight is hard to find

your tendons all are music strings
strung too tight to tune
your skin becomes the drowning flow
scorched by fire to a ruin

your bones have turned
to shattered stone
and muscles washed away
ripped apart by torn earth
your blood begun to fray

and you
the broken reveller    
must learn
again
to dance

the shattering
of your bones
shall be the rattle
in your hands



Maia Elesi: Poet, laugher, crier, ponderer making sense and surrendering to the senseless of this wondrous and tragic world, weaving the threads of joy and shame together. Raised by and living on ancient Wurundjeri Woiwurring country, land stolen in a continuous act of colonial violence. To this land and it’s peoples, throughout time, I give my deepest respects, gratitude and sorrows.