whale watching

I'm sitting here staring at this screen, my toes in the sand waiting for the water to lap up.

I sit here with the fluorescent lights, the water gently covering the slick sand, the dogs running in and out of the water, chasing the waves.

The view is spectacular, a horizon empty but for a kite surfer, a boat. The sky melting into the water, salt mist covering my sticky salt-lick skin.

I surf the internet looking for something to do, to occupy my stagnant brain. The wind gusts and blows my hair in front of my face, flicking the ends into my mouth. I shake and take a pin from my desk, securing the hair behind my ear.

I slip my heels off under my desk so the water can lick my toes with their icy cold tongues and I smile, because this beach is my mine. I am the only one here, apart from the boy next to me with his shovel and bucket, he's here too. he's making sandcastles.

I put my notebook aside and take the phone off the hook and I go and I make sandcastles with him, he's a man now. He has grown up but I am the same age. We are looking at computer screens and talking about lay-outs and graphics.

I return the phone to the hook and my feet to their shoes and I continue my work.

petals

there's a flower looking at me and smiling. It's white and has frills, the edges are turning brown. It's little leaves are turning in on themselves, it looks as though it has its hands on its hips.

It was a gift this flower, from a stranger on a street corner. He smiled and I smiled and then the flower smiled.

I almost killed it, and yet it lives and it smiles, and it smiles at me.

winter blews

just waiting for the sun.

ode to armidale

cold on my fingers,

cold on my toes,

we shall have coldness wherever we goes.

lets be the rain drops

Walk with me.

Let's walk down this path and hold hands and tell each other everything.

Let's write a song...

Let's walk together and figure this out.

I'll make us tea and you knit the blankets and we'll walk forever and we'll walk forever together.

I'm going to put my hand in yours and we're going to take a step, just one little step.

I'll bring the music, and if the music stops we'll sing and if the singing stops we can hum and when our throats are too sore to hum we'll just let the birds sing for us.

I'm taking a step, are you coming with me?

Come with me.

We can make up stories about where we're going, we can make up adventures that we're going to have down the road. I'll sleigh the dragon if you find the treasure. We can cross bridges and uncover hidden keys, we can take chances and use rope swings and build forts.

Can we have an adventure?

I'm going to put my lips to your ears and whisper my secrets. Your ears will never tell. Your lips can sit in my ear too, we can tell secrets and dreams until the sun sets.

You're my dream, can I make you come true? My ears miss your lips when they're not whispering. Soft, hot, tickling whispers.

I'm going to take your hand in mine and read your palm, tell your future and make it come true.

Lets skip rocks on the lake, lets watch the clouds change shape and watch the rain fall from heaven onto our noses. Let's be the rain drops rolling over each others skin.

I'm going to kiss you now.

When we kiss there's going to be fireworks and waterworks and heart palpitations.

Our kiss is going to change the planet, there might be an earthquake or a flood or a hail storm. It won't go unnoticed.

Are you going to kiss me or what?

When we walk down the road the world won't be ash, we won't be starving, there won't be cannibals. There will be you and there will be me and we're going to walk right into the future and we're going to jump in the puddles and we're going to wear silly hats while we do it.

I'm kissing you now.

there's no place like home

the sewing machine and the girl had worked together and created something completely different.
the girl smiled, the sewing machine hummed.
this was the beginning.
this was the end.


(L)





I get trapped inside my head sometimes. It's hard for me to get out of here and back into the world, my thoughts can be mean, but they're never cold or windy. I can forget about the outside world and just spend days upon days walking around inside my head in a warm little bubble. I like it in here, it's safe and there's no annoying people.
I sit in my head and we talk and we muse and we contemplate. We both forget about the world that exists outside. Sometimes I allow visitors, it's always a little uncomfortable though, watching them walk carelessly through my rubble walls, touching my erratic mess. We whisper mean things about them, but only very quietly.
I worry about how much time I could spend here if the world didn't always insist on getting in the way at some point, I like it in here, we like it in here.

I prefer my bubble.
I prefer this world.










.

Shadows Pocket

There once was a little shadow girl who lived in a little shadow pouch.

She was alone and she was lonely and she had slowly faded into a nothing, just a silhouette of the colourful playful girl she used to be. Scared she would completely fade away and disappear into the nights air decided she needed to go on an adventure.

She hopped out of her pouch and back into the world she had long neglected. After her years in solitude the world looked strange to her, like every step she took caused an explosion of colour and excitement, how had she forgotten this?

She looked down at her little monochrome limbs and sighed, she used to be full of bright colours, radiating from deep within her heart. She realised how much she missed her old psychedelic self and she began to cry, big blue tears fell down her cheeks.

She’d read Alice in Wonderland and she knew that she needed to stop crying before her tears caused a flood, but she couldn’t. Slowly but very surely the tears formed an ocean, and the ocean was tumultuous and dangerous and alive with rage. The girls’ tears became joyous as she had always wanted to see the ocean and now here it was surrounding her.

As she swam in her beautiful tear drop ocean she felt something funny inside, like a little fireowrk shooting through her toes and sparking all through her body, tingling her fingertips & her nose until finally the tingling settled and all that was left was a perfect pair of sparkling blue eyes lighting up her otherwise dull face.

She swam to the shore and was busily trying to dry herself off when she realised she was in the most astounding green rainforest she had ever seen. Completely bewildered by her surroundings she decided to take a walk and explore the place, but as she walked her feet kept slipping in the mud and her toes kept getting tangling on the spikey vines. Feeling a little dismayed  but a little more determined she sat down on a stone and wove herself a pair of green gumboot shoes from the shubbery, using the vines to wrap them together and lace them up. Once she has finished she dusted off her dress and continued on her way.
She walked through the rainforest for a long time, marvelling at all the trees and creatures she saw. Finally she came across a clearing, a big open valley that was completely covered in bright red poppies. She skipped her way to the center to the field and lay down. She rested her head on a bed of poppies and watched as the wind swayed the flowers, listening to the valley breathe.

Walking through the rainforest had exhausted Shadow and so she rested her eyes and let the wind sway her to sleep with the breath of the poppies. She dreamt that she was a part of the field, that she was a poppy swinging and dancing in the wind.

She sat up drowsily in the middle of the valley and decided it was time to get on her way, but as she went to stand up the poppies began to twist around her, entwining with her limbs and making it impossible for her to get away, let alone stand. She was beginning to get a little bit frightened. She had enjoyed her stay in the valley but she didn't want to be stuck there forever.

She was trying to think up a plan as quickly as she could, and had begun to lose hope when suddenly the flowers began to ease away. Confused she looked down and saw that they had decorated her dress in their red blooming flowers. She quickly thanked them all and danced away, twirling in her red dress.

She left they valley and was dancing down the path, spinning in her dress and kicking her gumboot shoes and being altogether happy and altogether absentminded. Distracted the girl tripped and fell down a hole.

PLOD!

She landed at the bottom hard and was feeling very dazed and confused when she opened her eyes and saw a dwarf man starring at her. She introduced herself and ask the man his name but he refused. She dusted herself off and looked around the small hovel, the place was covered in gold! and in the corner stood a miniature spinning wheel, it was also gold! Shadow has an idea, she thought she knew where she was and if she was correct, she had a plan...
She turned and smiled cheekily at the little dwarf man.
"Hello Rumplestiltskin?" She laughed.
The shocked dwarf was suddenly very angry, no one was supposed to know his name!
And so a deal was made, Shadow could never tell anyone the little dwarfs name and in return he would weave her long golden hair. So as he weaved she sat and told him of her adventures and how she hoped to regain her colours and she made them pots of tea and baked cookies, it had been a long time since shadow had had anyone to talk to.

She fell asleep on a bail of straw while Rumple was weaving her hair and when she awoke all that was left in the room was the hay she was sleeping on, her new golden locks and a shiny rope of gold hanging from the hole she had fallen through the day before.

As she climbed the ladder she noticed a pink glow on everything, and when she arrived at the top of the hole she a little shocked to have no idea where she was, there was no forest and no poppy valley to be seen, it appeared as if she was on some sort of island, she was confused as to why everything on the island was pink until she saw the sun rising through the pink hue of the clouds, she grabbed a banana off a tree and sat to watch the sun rise. This was yet another experience the girl had not witnessed in a long time. She sat and smiled as the rising sun kissed her face, she picked herself off the ground, dusted the sand from her red dress and walked home.

She jumped back into her pouch and sighed with relief, it was good to be home.