Night Out

We awake at the end of the day,

When the sun can’t see us anymore.

This is our time.

While others are slowly shutting down,

We are alive

With lipgloss and perfume and earrings.

Checking the mirror every minute

For the perfect face

Perfect outfit

Perfect person.

Until

-

Finally

We are swaying round corners on the bus

Only half an hour late.

Our shoes are already hurting.

In the absence of a mirror,

The bus window will do,

Our faces reflected amongst the rain and dirt.

-

We’re still too early

So we clack down the road

To somewhere with sticky floors and not enough seats.

It’s cheap.

And first we sit there primly with glasses

But eventually we progress

To shots on the cluttered bar

And pitchers with straws.

-

So then we’re ready to stumble,

Not too much though,

To a long queue where we reapply our lipgloss,

Slowly edge our way forward,

Talking to strangers,

Till we are beckoned forwards,

Pay someone money we don’t have,

Walk through the welcoming door.

-

And then here,

Here.

We shout in each other’s ears,

Queue to make our throats burn,

We don’t care how long.

In here we are pushed everywhere,

We are never still.

Linking arms we fight our way to a space

That is meant for two,

But we fit six.

And then we move and sweat and look

At our clones doing the same thing,

-

When the lights go on

It’s rude and unwanted

And our confused bodies

Carry us naturally to neon lighted fast food,

Which we consume on the packed bus,

Taking us home to someone else’s world.