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…