The Queen of Hearts will find you every time

I wrote this to read at Passionate Tongues on Monday 7th September as part of their Travel feature night for the 8th Overload Poetry Festival.

I have this idea

Victoria Harbour

Hong Kong 1999

I am at a low point

A charming Sikh

Red turban wobble

“Madam, why do you cry?”

There are too many reasons

He gives me a playing card

The Queen of Hearts

To magic my sorrow away

I have this idea

That if I toss that red queen

I can leave the me I don’t want

Right there in that bay

And get on the plane

And fly up and away

She is strong though, that lady

You wouldn’t believe

She battles and strokes

Through the South China Sea

While I am at home

Licking my wounds

Waiting for my new life

My new me to begin

She is fending off pirates

In Sulu and Celebes

Riding whale spouts

Past East Timor

Conquering the Arafura Sea

While I am at counseling

Affirming and visioning

Reinventing and constructing

She’s hit dry land

And is dragging her way

She legs it from Darwin

And hitches from Katherine

She is fierce

She is bloody

She just will not die

And while I am

White lighting

And healing my chakras

She is underneath trucks

Like a horror film star

She is clawing and crawling

From Alice to Coober Pedy

She will not stop fighting

She will not give in

And on a late Sunday morning

Between coffee and markets

She appears at my doorway

Ravaged

Triumphant

Ferocious with glee

“Nice try,”

She says

-         and laughs quite maniacally

“But I’ll always find you,

No matter how far you run

Or how deep you hide

I’m stronger, I’m faster, I’m angrier, I’m greedier

And I know what you can’t

You’re not you without me

We’re together for all time.”