The best bit of V98

It wasn’t sitting around the campfire 

as a spliff was handed around.

Or the guitarist three tents over

playing us to sleep. 

Or when you saw James

for the first time in your flower top. 

It wasn't the slow wake up among a small sleepy audience 

for Lionrock in the dance tent.

It wasn’t when Green Day rocked so much their songs

pulled you further and further through the crowd

Or when The Verve played ‘the drugs don’t work’

and you cried into the shoulder of a Geordie lad.

Or when the sun set behind the stage 

and lighters became fireflies. 

It was the impromptu mud dance with strangers,

singing ‘Staying out for the summer!’ by Dodgy.

First published in Green Fields, Maytree Press, March 2020

Cover photo: Louis Comar