Summer Solstice | moments

Summer Solstice.

Lily Anna 

written with dedication to australian summer & paul kelly

Fly wires & screen doors. The sickly smell of skin exposed to the sun far too long.

Cicada symphony in the early morning. You wake with the sun. You reminisce about it in the evening.

Branding scars with seatbelts, taking respite under the gums & wearing linen, wearing anything in a hibiscus theme. 

Flocking to the nearest body of water the sunscreen scented glistening bodies. Mothers chasing children to smother them in that chemically coconut smell. Time becomes elastic, bending until books are finished within a day, all that feel the same. 

Tanlines. Figures covered in golden. From next to nothing swimmers & unlucky occasions where we forgot to take our mothers suggestion of protection. 

The symphony of summer, with its wattle seed wandering, the visions of youth, running, colliding with one another.

We're a summer country, we crave the grit & the heat.

We hold out in between seasons to quench a thirst to live lightly.

To drink beer on balmy nights. delight in mango season.

All we want is the slow lullaby remnants of a day floating in the sea

The nostalgia carved into our culture

we're waiting for our australiana

our eucalyptus barefoot fever dream.

Photo by Isobel Owers

WORDS: LILY ANNA
PHOTOGRAPHY: ISOBEL OWERS
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: CONSTANCE ALLAN & SARAH RAMANTANIS