She liked you to call her Tikki
bi-polar but you'd never know
unless you were there when she flipped

Then you could watch her fly - high as a kite
eyes shining
voice bright staccato

Once she painted the house blue
- it took her three days and nights
- non stop
electric blue
Bob Dylan's favourite colour
so she said.

Another time she drove to Canberra
in her battered holden
700 kms with the kids in the back
to tell the Prime Minister
he was an arsehole...

She was fiercely clever
terrifyingly so
and scraggy, with skin
that always looked faintly grubby

She had three children
Matilda was ten
and the twins
Tommy and Rosie
(Rosie was her favourite)

Her husband Charles
understood her
adored her
and prescribed the lithium
she hated

She used to leave him from time to time
but always came back

Not this time

6.00am news flash
'... house fire at Panton Hills.'

At the funeral
Charles and Matty and Tom
huddled together
Two white coffins stood side by side

Later at the Co-op school
there were flowers everywhere
picked from everyone's gardens
hundreds of flowers
stuffed in jars.

The kids played Beethoven's Ode to Joy
on their recorders.

Alison Cassidy

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-joy/