She liked you to call her Tikki <br />bi-polar but you'd never know <br />unless you were there when she flipped <br /> <br />Then you could watch her fly - high as a kite <br />eyes shining <br />voice bright staccato <br /> <br />Once she painted the house blue <br /> - it took her three days and nights <br /> - non stop <br />electric blue <br />Bob Dylan's favourite colour <br />so she said. <br /> <br />Another time she drove to Canberra <br />in her battered holden <br />700 kms with the kids in the back <br />to tell the Prime Minister <br />he was an arsehole... <br /> <br />She was fiercely clever <br />terrifyingly so <br />and scraggy, with skin <br />that always looked faintly grubby <br /> <br />She had three children <br />Matilda was ten <br />and the twins <br />Tommy and Rosie <br />(Rosie was her favourite) <br /> <br />Her husband Charles <br />understood her <br />adored her <br />and prescribed the lithium <br />she hated <br /> <br />She used to leave him from time to time <br />but always came back <br /> <br />Not this time <br /> <br />6.00am news flash <br />'... house fire at Panton Hills.' <br /> <br />At the funeral <br />Charles and Matty and Tom <br />huddled together <br />Two white coffins stood side by side <br /> <br />Later at the Co-op school <br />there were flowers everywhere <br />picked from everyone's gardens <br />hundreds of flowers <br />stuffed in jars. <br /> <br />The kids played Beethoven's Ode to Joy <br />on their recorders.<br /><br />Alison Cassidy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-joy/
