blood in the water

Maroon is the colour of a Queenslander's blood

a corruption of loyalty for the royalty

of an empire half a century & half a world away



My Queensland heart pulses maroon instead

it never really wanted to leave, never truly left

but my troubadour feet & Tourette’s Syndrome tongue

dictated exile from the sunshine state



Maroon is the colour of Queensland Labor gone conservative

"God, King & Country"

Pedophile priests, Monarchist toadies

& Capitalist farmers

crying drought, fire & flood



My Queensland blood tainted & tinged

by Police-state doctrine

red & blue lights flashing

outside a brothel in Fortitude Valley

crooked cops exchanging silence for headjobs

the darkened drops on the end of black boots

& nightsticks slick with protesters blood

are maroon too



My Queensland blood is as red as the cherries

on my uncle's hand-me-down cricket bat

after he bashed the leather against a brick wall repeatedly

when he got laid off at the abattoir

the butcher blood on his knives was maroon too



My bartender's blood spilled so often

in the name of tourist town greed

          "Hope yer all havin a Bundy good time!"

tinnies are maroon when State-of-Origin comes around

          "Ya's can have any beer ya want


                           as long as it's spelt with 4 red X's!"

& ruptured vessels gather & disperse

across the stainless steel in dark pools of maroon



The colour of Queensland sporting triumph

A.B. & Thommo, 63 year Sheffield Shield drought-breakers

The mighty Brisbane Lions’ hatrick of flags

Billy Moore screaming               QUEENSLANDER

                                                         QUEENSLANDER

                                                                  QUEENSLANDER

King Wally sacked

little Alfie & the Murdoch funded broncos

worm-infested outback vermin

dogfood of the lowest quality



Maroon is the colour of a date-rapist's dick

                "Johnnie-football-wanker"

menses on the prophylactic thrown out of court on

                "Consensual technicalities"

packs of juvenile dolphins & blood in the water



Fraser Island dingoes are culled

to protect tourists from becoming dogfood

their carcasses pile up stinking of gunshot

& the dark stains of colonialism

senseless murder of natives

the blood on their dusky skin

was red, so red

dark red

maroon, the colour of my heart