The Rainbow Bird

By | 1 December 2013

for Anna-May

Her beauty’s a lazy place to start,
it’s so easy. How my gaze sinks in
like a cream pie projectile;
the generous overflow. A springtime
offering: she is hay bales and peaches.
In a previous life, gingham.
My Dorothy.

Sunshine like meteor fire – I’m asleep
in her bed of embers. Leaning down
through waxy bathwater to kiss her
alive. The thunderstorm internalised.

To be coaxed from the obituaries
by a loquacious child. An epileptic
fit of orange curls – the feminine
and the guttural. I’m too kind
to hold you in my fist; I know
the opium of freedom. Afloat
in the same ripple. The birdseed
fall-away of a disintegrating sandbank.
My feet scramble for assurance to find
only the softness of seawater, a soda
stream of effervescence and a thrown
torch groping its way through darkness.

The lorikeet with its head bent
sideways as if to ask:
where is she?

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One Response to The Rainbow Bird

  1. Anonymous says:

    She is here with me – chris
    Lovely words