Congratulations to Isabella Treacy, who wins the Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry for the second year, and to Yilong She, who receives a Commendation. First, some of Isabella's winning portfolio.
A Funeral for your Lies
and an Exhumation of my Truths
You could call this a funeral
for your Lies,
and an exhumation
of my Truths.
I was buried next to this unseemly secret
six feet deep with the roots.
Lord knows I should still be
pushing daisies.
You took my life
but it's not the end.
I was put in the ground
and now I'm back from the dead.
You should have known
that something which was never living
can never really die.
I’m getting tired of crawling all the way.
I've had enough!
Isn’t it obvious?
Holding the pain like I’m holding my breath
Now that I’m on trial.
I won’t be beaten by this,
Not yet.
And it’s my whole heart
Being tried and tested,
But it’s mine!
I won’t be buried or burned this time.
Who’s the equivocator now?
Keres, help me not to forget,
While I’m on trial,
Wait until the beast comes out.
Oh you fool, there are rules,
I’m coming for you.
You can try to outrun this scourger
but you can’t escape.
Holy water cannot save you now.
Now your reckoning begins
and La Pelona will lead you
to your yawning grave.
I took a journey to the unknown
And I came back changed,
I can feel it in my bones.
It feels like I've been away for an era
but nothing changed at all.
Say goodbye to who I was.
You told me to calm down
and asked why my heart had turned rotten?
It still gets my blood boiling.
And now I look at you
through crimson tinted glasses
while I stay stuck in the crossfire
of my own thoughts.
La Pelona and I walk side by side
over your spoiled, evil spirit.
You left a deep scar
which I still try to bleach out.
I’ll dig a grave for your lies
with a beating heart of stone,
and I’ll never spare
my sympathy
for someone like you.
Kitchen floors and
Saints at doors
How could I have known
what I was about to trade.
All I knew was that I saw a way
and you saw the worst in me.
As I reached for the clouds
you made sure that I
would return
to your weightless embrace.
I still search for a reason
not to end up in denial,
like those long summer nights
stolen away as the moon falls.
Despite the lies you bound to me
I still love you.
But, I won't wait anymore,
for the parts of you
that are never on show.
Yet, my heart yearns
to lay on the kitchen floor
under you’re unfeeling gaze
as moonlight paints your face.
And every morning
when you wake,
I'll still love those
mangled bits of you.
Mine Forever
I was there,
When you fell from the clouds.
When I found you,
I saw a place like paradise in your eyes,
then I knew that my end would come soon.
Those modest saying that meant so much to you,
with me they’ve never quite got through.
I’ve always needed bigger words.
I was so full of love that I could hardly breathe.
There isn’t a language for the things I feel.
It was such a relief and a horror
To be known so perfectly,
So completely.
You were the one who made me believe,
that I could fly again.
Now we’re a story that I don’t want to read.
Loving you was easy when I balanced on a knife's edge.
Now your spirit follows me wherever I go,
and I still hear your
melody from those days
as you haunt me in the night.
When the sun comes up and I go blind,
For a moment, I can blot out the memory of your face
and forget every line, every wrinkle.
But, if forever gets too lonely
I’ll meet you where our souls
Meet our bones,
Because in my mind
You’re mine forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment