ALL TEH THINGS by Nikki Viveca
This piece was commissioned by Midsumma as part of the COVID-19 responsive initiative Living in the Queerantine. Midsumma launched the small grants program as a response to the mass loss of the Melbourne queer arts industry (due to COVID-19). This piece is part of a series of works from our LGBTQIA+ arts community, that gives Midsumma audiences an insight into queer art during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Nikki Viveca is a multidisciplinary artist, whose work encompasses standup, performance poetry, dance, theatre and improv and in any genre is reliably queer AF. She has been seen recently in her solo show Wasp Movie, in cabaret spectacular Gender Euphoria, in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec Electric and hosting ACEtravaganza at this year’s Midsumma Festival. Nikki was the winner of the 2019 Midsumma Poetry Slam and 2019 Trans Poetry Slam, as well as a runner up for the 2019 Melbourne Spoken Word Prize.
ALL TEH THINGS
It’s putting on lipstick with nowhere to go
It’s dancing in fishnets with a glass of Merlot
It’s wearing high heels just to strut round your home
All these that things we do when we’re on our own
It’s the recording light on your livestream for one
It’s eating in one go all six hot cross buns
It’s telling yourself push-up challenges are fun
The things that we do to not come undone!
It’s telling jokes on the net, eating pizza in bed
It’s alternative timelines you run in your head
It’s deciding it’s time you learned to bake bread
All these things that we do to prove we’re not dead
It’s taking a selfie with your bra just in view
Or a day in the garden to weed, hose and prune
It’s downgrading your Merlot to cheap Aldi goon
Oh so many lonely things we can do!
It’s going for a walk just to spot autumn leaves
It’s laughing too much as you scroll through the memes
It’s making yourself endless cups of hot tea
These things that we do when there’s nowhere to be.
It’s watching your friends on Instagram live
It’s another delivery of mail order wine
It’s shopping for a wand vibrator online
These things that we do to fill in the time
It’s on fleek make up that no one will see
It’s choosing a sad song and pressing repeat
It’s your hand on your chest just to feel your heart beat
All these things that we do to remember that beat
Silly things that we do to remember that beat
Desperate things that we do to remember that beat
All these things which aren’t quite the things that we need.
- by Nikki Viveca
Follow the links to find out more about the initiative Living in the Queerantine and to see all of the successful grant applicants. Or visit the Midsumma Blog for more Queerantine works by Midsumma artists. To find out more about Nikki Viveca, see the social links below
