Dancing in the dark


Dancing in the dark
the soft bits

Falling to the side

Hardly noticed I was smiling
as I reached deeper inside

I pull out my tusks
stick them to the side of my head

It makes it a little harder to hear

So, I use the beat of my heart
to keep dancing

My jaw distends
and sucks the eyes
out of the sockets

It might be a strange sight…but I still feel pretty

As I dance to
the beat of my
broken heart

I rip at my skin
push aside the flesh
my ribcage splays open

The bones make a great necklace
I bind them together
with my hair

My backbone protests
relocates and forms
a tail

It looks good
swaying to and fro

but it starts fighting with my liver
so I tell it to go



‘Where’ it demands…try dancing without me’

And off it goes, taking the lungs and kidneys

My heart is still pumping
starts dropping in a few extra beats

So now my womb gets involved

Screaming   somewhat hysterically
“are you happy now”

My blood flows

Merges with
my tears and
my excreta

I tried to run away but my DNA got in the way

So there I stand
covered in blood and shit
and salty waters

It’s a strange sight

But I keep dancing
in the heart
of the dark
Broken




Rosanna Raymond
Sistar S'pacific aka Rosanna Raymond, an innovator of the contemporary Pasifika art scene as a long-standing member of the art collective 'Pacific Sisters', and founding member of  'SaVAge K'lub'. Raymond has achieved international renown for her performances, installations, body adornment, and spoken word.

A published writer and poet, her works are held by museums and private collectors throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  A former Chesterdale Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Rosanna was the Pacific Artist in Residence at Government House in 2017 and is currently a researcher for  the AUT Marden funded project 'Vā Moana'.








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