Six definitions of love you can’t explain
i
desert wells
ii
fieldwork with spiritual intent
iii
music composed on the eyes
iv
the canvas is larger
v
a small plane flying into desert rain
vi
a pact between red, blue, and almost white
This poem was adapted from ‘Colouring the Desert’ by Nicholas Rothwell.
Weekend Australian. July 20 2013.
The Super-salad Emerges from Cellophane
i. Kale
A studious form of spinach.
Coral growing under water that isn’t there;
the more it grows, the more it curls
like well-read books, the more it resembles
a little museum of green.
ii. Purple Cabbage
It has something of William Morris
but it’s hard as Brighton Rock.
Unsettling as stripey flowers
and paperchains that border classrooms:
something is wrong
when festive combines with neat.
iii. Beetroot
A creature drawn from a small black lake.
A vegetarian dreams her version of black pudding.
Breasts under wine-dark lycra, or speaking
from the table I’ve-left-your-body womb.
Yes, beetroot is the new black.