With a different year in mind goes Darren Hayes’s song, a year I wasn’t even born. But in 1999, I was, and let me dive back into this year, the one that followed the year the best music was released (according to me). Let me recall the musical times I had back then.

(This poem was prompted by dVerse Poets Pub – thanks to Shawna.)

Stained with bubble gum landscapes
tying friends together like dolphins on a chain
we carried on dancing like we had nothing else but
the same music over and under and in

side by side
hand on hand
studying hyperballad phonetics
under our newly coffee-stained breath

stained
was our word full of promises
I could never blow balloons but I tried hard I swear
I sweat
at the thought of pink sticky matter exploding on me

and keeping me from understanding
Koi
Eifersucht
Karma
from holding back the years
yet

« What kind of monster would I be able to release? »
I rushed as music found a circular space
in our already hardened mind.