Rainbow Hotel

Red


------


I dream of going to the Red centre

To write poems each night

By candlelight

With dirty feet 
Wild people I will meet 
Sparkling night skies

Wonder in my eyes. 


Sitting on a rock up the mountain

in the red centre

A strange high bird and

sun watching over me

red bulbous cold rocks

spiky white grass

blow in the wind

a few crisp shakes

I sit on a rock

Burning in the wind

Blowing in the sun

And write a poem

Last night I lay in bed 
I thought about getting up, 
wrapping myself in the red silk Chinese fabric 
grama gave me and going upstairs 
to see if the moon was up.

You see I had a burning in my heart.

Yellow

------

today I put on my maroon party dress and turned 32. 
I gazed at the orange hills of the south of France. 
someone poured a warm golden liquid over me. 
My heart soaked it all up. 
A flower waited patiently for me at breakfast 
while I did my make-up. 
we sat high up on a hill. 
I blew the petals from the yellow flower 
that was stuck into my cake. 
I became a portion of the sun.

Pink

------


I was driving along yesterday

9am Sunday morning when
a sweet old lady
wearing bright pink slippers

crossed at the lights in front of me
She held a carton of fresh milk to her chest
and shuffled across in her bright pink slippers.
I was overcome with excitement 
and a desire to roll my window down 
and yell in supportive glee in her direction 
"Pink Sllliippperrs!!". 
but I didn’t. 
coz I didn’t want to scare the lady. 
I wish I did now.
 I reckon she'd’ve thought it was funny. 
she may’ve even lifted one of them up 
to let me get a better view.

Green

------

I sit beside the apple tree.

Branches crowded with chubby apples.

They bounce softly in the wind

dusty pink and cheeky green

their shiny bottoms bob

I watch with delight

This romantic sight

and dream of living

In an apple orchard 

And writing poems 

About apples growing

Suddenly 

The voice of his past 

filtered stiffly 

through the trees, 

his ex-wife’s voice- a sharp arrow 

shoots and pierces my dreamy apples

Green
------

I washed my feet

I continued on

on my little path again

saw a bright green lizard, 
squashed on the road

poor lizard, and its gizzard!

Wondered what a paradox truly was

he said here our paths shall part 
did not realise,

deep down,

it would be a day of gathering

and deep down.                   
as I walked away.     
I let him go

with tears welling in my eyes
I dragged my green boogie board behind me

and thought 

what a sorry sight I must have seemed

Purple
------

My backyard

I sit in a purple plastic arm chair

Collecting sunlight in my hair

Scanning the scene like a lazy detective

And putting it into words

The cat shows off her white furry belly

I stare down at my stripey socks

While an overgrown weed wobbles in the wind

and brushes against my shin


Metallica thrashes along through the air
To shatter my eardrums

The neighbour is pumping Iron

And metal in his garage-come-gym

Orange
------

I can see the sun on the grass off in the distance. 
Golden green. Can there be a more beautiful colour? 
Mum’s on the phone talking about oranges. 
“don't leave em out or they'll get mouldy. 
If you juice em soon that's ok. 
Yeah cool.”
- she’s talking to her one of her ex boyfriends. 
They always talk like that. 
about down to earth nice things. 
Like eggs or plants. 
He's a country boy, you see.

Paris is orange
Dusk has been and gone and 
now the streets of Paris 
are a neon orange.

The lamplights are tall

and bending in sympathy towards us.

Like they already know our fate.

Blue
------

I went to get some cheap wine. 
The sky was a still heavy blue

I walked by Daisies huddling together. 
Smiling at me from there area.

In my shadow A porch light was being intense

(I dropped my worries somewhere l
eft them there good!

Black
------

The lights went off. 
I lost my power. 
I was in the dark. 
I scrambled around the place. 
for candles. 
things got a bit romantic. 
I got ready for my date in the lingering light of the flickering flames. 
on the tiles. (I put the dirty candles in the shower). 
I tripped over my bag a hundred times and cursed the black-ness.  
I might’ve put my lippy on skewed or not rubbed in my foundation. 
tumbled out the door and turned off the light that wasn’t on. 
got there. got mixed messages. 
told him 'look, I got ready in the dark!' was it my hair? 
something was missing. the light. the love. the power. 
got home. still dark. in the morning, it was light again. 
I got my power back! 
and got over another guy who wasn’t the one.

Brown
------

I’m lying outside. 
my top is the colour of brick. 
the roof rumbles. 
I’m day dreaming of the guy I might meet and the scenario around it. 
maybe at a party. maybe at the party tonight. 
who knows. I have it dream it first. 
really imagine it. then it will come true. 

trying to imagine the guy I’m going to meet. 
all I can see is a brown plaid shirt and a goatee beard. 
it’s a start.

White
 ------

I was wearing a white jumper today

and I said to my mate “do you ever

enjoy wearing white?' she said she didn't know.

There are specific times when I like to wear white.

I’m not suggesting ALL white.

I’m not in the Bee-Gees for Chris sake.

And I'm not talking' about a wedding dress

(ha! very far from that at the mo.)

I'm talking about this; a white jumper, 
a white t-shirt or even just a white singlet. It feels pure. It feels clean. It feels optimistic.


White

------

I sit here in a daze. thinking of the guys gone wrong

and scratching the flakes from my hair

I think of each guy

each flake

as they fly from my hair

into the air

look at them fly!

like white snow...

high and low

away they go!

2.10.09

Beige
------

while watching the cartoons I see my father in the morning strut past my 
brother and I…

he heads towards the shower...

his beige undies hang low...

they are making no attempt to hide his bum crack...

in he digs for a good scratch...
many many mornings later this most indiscreet ritual continues to haunt me...

Rainbow Hotel 1

------

A black bird flies through the middle of the sky.

The water from the water feature shoots directly down wards.

The palm trees are fluorescent green.

Water reflections tickle them underneath, their leaf.

A man moves in the distance. In the restaurant.

He is dressed in yellow.

A pink man beside me bakes his body

red in the sun. I forget myself.

An orange slide waits patiently for the excited little boy. 
A head with a purple cap on it, bobs along in the deep end. 
Aqua water wobbles with delight.

The underside of palm trees flop around in my face someone has calligraphed onto them underneath, perfectly. 
A man dressed all in white carries a white plastic bag across the bridge, in the heat, in haste. Now I see why. A tub of ice-cream. he and his lady plunge their faces into.

The water today is like a blue sheet 
blowing in a soft wind 
that two men are holding at either end 
and are about to fold.

A tiny turquoise tit fires out from a tree 
like a canon across to another tree.

The woman next to me puts another 
stick in her mouth and lights the end. 
The pink man beside her has got a massive belly. 
What’s got into it? 
I wonder.

Rainbow Hotel 2
------

The other night I spoke with my mate and

she said she’d be at the Rainbow Hotel

later with some guy, there’d be a jazz band on.

Later I thought that sounded pretty good.

with the things going on at home that were bringin me down.

I would walk down and maybe slide into the dark and slip onto a chair and be quiet, sip a wine and smoke.

I called her up and she didn’t sound that mad about me coming.

She must’ve really liked the guy.