Honestly the song Hold On by Wilson Phillips by Kate Leah Hewett

Honestly the song Hold On by Wilson Phillips 

catches you off guard. Snags in the memory like a thread on a sweater. Next thing you’re back at the indie disco, tight-clipped limbs unhitched by dry ice and snakebite + black. Strange time machine, picking you up and depositing you onto a dancefloor. Before supercomputers in every pocket and a fully developed prefrontal cortex. The way it leaves you wondering if you ever actually liked that song. Was it more a case of needing something, a signifier, to stitch your name tag into? Ticket stubs reside in shoeboxes. Sharpie clings to a cubicle wall. I.D.S.T.

Another time you’re driving home, headlights on the slick of leaves that won’t dry til April. You find yourself on the A57, a late night pilgrimage to and from the show. Not religious as such, but certainly devotional. Steering into the skid of wish fulfilment fantasy, in which the things you say or do change the course of events years down the road. The guy at Built To Spill who keeps shouting out between songs. Play Carry The Zero. The way you could have leant across and whispered in an ear. Give them a minute man, you could have said. Just wait. They’re gonna play it. They are going to play it.

For Simon 

Kate Leah Hewett (she/her) is a poet, writer, cultural worker, gardener and occasional DJ. She lives on the edge of the Peak District with her wife and daughter. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Ink Sweat & Tears, Queerlings, One Hand Clapping, Sinister Wisdom and elsewhere. She has performed in Yorkshire, New York and on Basilica SoundScape's Poet Trolley, and has collaborated with musicians including Harkin and Tim Mislock. Hire her to DJ your gay wedding at https://www.handmirror.online