All long nails, big thighs and anxiety
We are torn dresses, wild hair and mud in the forest
We find ourselves meditating under trees
Sometimes we are lightning dancing in a cave listening to the roaring wave
We are the scent of cognac and the sound of manic laughter
Outside the cave bees and butterflies play
Sometimes we are red wellie boots, a muddy scuffed T-shirt, a warm vest
A flash of purple eyes
Here violet and burgundy meet the deep sea
Where giant squid and angler fish
Swim with nameless creatures
It’s turtles all the way down
We are rare like unicorns
Soft like a flame in the dark
We are searching for where the sound is coming from
Sometimes we are hammers and shovels and turquoise toenails
Cross stitch and a welding arc
Leather jackets and silk dresses
Little bones and big spirits
or super soft shorts, jock straps and knee length socks
We are beautifully alive
A wind blowing across a wide desert
Some call us witches
We pull all of this from a child’s dress up box
We make it all a theatre performance
And then laugh with the quiet discovery
That we are also mountains, some sea and a constellation of star dust.
Laura is a writer and artist who works with children for a day job. Originally from Africa they now reside in Brisbane. In their spare time they pursue witchcraft and other forms of activism in hopes of making a better world.