This poem, the first I wrote since my teens, boiled out of me from the outrage and sadness I felt for Mulrunji's family and the people of Palm Island after an inquest and trial into his death in custody returned what were clearly suss verdicts that failed to honestly deliver justice or truth, and further tainted the Queensland Police Force and so-called justice system with dishonour and racism:

POETIC INJUSTICE (Poem for Palm Island)

Now Aboriginal…

REDNECKS NEXT DOOR  ©JewelRainbow2009

A flash of torchlight through the window pierces the tropical night

A neighbour’s voice outside stage-whispers to his nearby wife:

“That’s disgusting,” he spits, staunching the light in his fist as I wake you.

Some say we’re strange bedfellows, you and me,

Your rainforest darkness dancing on my moonlight skin

They can’t fathom the feeling between us

“What does she see in him?”

Their love is blind to…

DECEMBER (For Dorothy Porter, 1954-2008) © Jewel Vercoe Rainbow

In December, the time of endings and celebration,

You quietly left this earth bereft and, so too, this nation

Your early death a selfish theft by the gods of Poesy

Who coveted you, great poetess, to recite at their nightly cosey



Piercing eyes of an eagle, cheekbones sculpted high and regal,

They recognised an Egyptian queen who once ruled in Memphis.

Your stylised words…

I want him, but he’s not here

He wants her, but she doesn’t care

I could want him, but he wants her… and her… and her…

And he wants me…

But I want him,

And he’s not here…

©JewelRainbow (written at a party at Blackwattle Studio in 1983)

To my love ones, near and far, you know who you are

Night or day, you never turn away from where you always are

Close to my heart, inspiring my art

Keeping me smiling through it all

Picking me up each time I fall

Always listening when I call

You are the ones I love, sent from above,

And I just want to say, hey, thanks for everything

For making my soul sing, for all the good cheer you bring

To my darkest nights and longest…

Once upon a time when we were small we used to believe them all

But as we grew we sadly knew that most would end badly…

Sleeping Beauty dreamt until she woke just in time to see the prince

Was not at all what he was meant to be and she was surrounded

By men who were dwarfs in more ways than one

Cinderella eventually got her fella despite her mean stepsisters’

Attempts to keep her poor and make her scrub the floor forever more…

Red Riding Hood…

The Shanghai Beauty, she dutifully danced for her country

From age nine till thirty-four, and the men all called her ‘Sir!’

The Shanghai Beauty, she’s such a cutie, albeit with a fierce mind

Now her spirit soars through the air like a bird without a care

But don’t dare ever think of messing with The Shanghai Beauty

She may be rare and sexy, but she can still give you a scare

Her name is Jin Xing and she can do anything she sets her mind to

The…

THE LAST TIME YOU KNOCKED ME AROUND  ©JewelRainbow2009

The last time you knocked me around I knew it was the last time

I kept quiet and didn’t cry as I felt those once-warm embers die

On the end of your punch, as I heard its bruising crunch

As I fell to the floor, as you slammed me into the door as I ran

Did you feel like a real man? Like Ali as you hit me?…

EQUILIBRIUM (a tribute to racehorses) ©JewelRainbow

Up and off to work before dawn, the first to see the rising sun

Each day finds you already saddled up and ready for your run

Or returning from a pitch-black gallop so your fleet secret is kept

By your rider, trainer and timekeeper who plan to place a hefty bet

Crouched along your strong neck I see the once-real world

Around us framed between your velvet ears like a movie set

Now appear to…

BABY BOOMER CRASH ©JewelRainbow2009

The stockmarket crashed last year and turned at once from bull to bear

Savaging those once flush with cash now burned and broken everywhere

Flash homes and cars and credit cards, we’ve now had to discard

Our selfish greed and excess, we’ve now had to redress

Our lazy kids, so overindulged and smugly rich

Now forced reluctantly to ditch their expensive wheels and toys

And live simply along with the rest of us…