LISA D’ONOFRIO was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, by Italian parents and lived in Norfolk, UK for many years. Her work is informed by issues raised by identity, misplacement, gender and domesticity. She has performed her poetry on television and on radio both in Australia and the UK; and her work has appeared on trams, trolleys, internet magazines and beer mats. She has been published in magazines in the UK, Australia and USA, and has three anthologies. She also performs her poetry, and has supported John Cooper Clarke and Benjamin Zephaniah, as well as reading at Glastonbury and other festivals. Also a promoter, tutor, facilitator, resident poet and documentary maker.

It had felt the slap and
tickle of feet
bare and wet
the cat, the mat,
the thud, the pat
and now, its colour drained,
it had settled under the steady stroke of just two pairs.

She knew this blue,
it had played beyond her lids
while chopping fruit, and spreading bread
or hanging clothes
while gazing out the kitchen window,
descaling fish
defrosting the fridge.
.
At 4am,
more paint than skin
she is rocked to sleep
her toenails dreaming in blue
and wakes, shook up
shrieks at the scene
it was not meant to be like this,

so again she mixes, tastes, examines
treads well beaten rugs,
stops to dust a skirting board
a ceiling corner,
takes a bath
anchoring the room with her paint splashed clothes
then tries again.

On the third morning
knowing that the colour matches
the one that lives in her head
she isn’t surprised to see
the bath tub sailing down the corridor
the towels waving behind.

Lisa D'Onofrio