Competition

Second Prize

Bullying Poem
by Valerie Toetau
Bundamba State Secondary College, Ipswich, Qld

I hear the girls talking
I hear them say my name
I walk on by, pretending I’m
Unfazed by their hurtful game
I feel their eyes follow me
Their giggles unsuppressed
I feel like bursting into tears
But I walk on, more depressed
Questions running through my head
Why do they do this all the time?
Why do they taunt? What have I done?
Is this some fault of mine?
I know others want to help me
I can see it in their face
They might want to take a stand for me
But they don’t want to take my place.

Third Prize

Just Another Day
by Katelin Haynes
Ipswich, Qld

I wake.
Sunlight reaches out
with nimble fingers
to caress the tops
of the trees.
Outside my window,
birds puncture
the new morning
with their melancholy song.

I cry.

Emerging from my room,
stumbling bleary-eyed
to the kitchen.
My mother
bent low over the stove.
Dishevelled hair,
grey and lifeless,
hangs like cold spaghetti
over too thin shoulders
Empty and hollow inside,
I find little sympathy
with this woman.

Gently I reach out
to touch
my mothers beautiful face.
“Why?”
Flinching,
she turns away
pretending not to hear.
My words are wasted on her.
Like so many other mornings,
I will spend this one
in silence.

Walking the empty halls
of this house,
I remember
that it hasn’t always
been like this.
There had been a time,
long ago,
when father would take me
to the zoo
or the beach.
And we would sit
and eat ice-creams
that slowly melted and dripped
through sticky fingers.
And he would carry me
on his strong shoulders
and call me
his ‘little princess’.

I cry.

Countless hours spend lying
still and vulnerable on my bed,
staring blankly at the cracked ceiling.
slowly, sleep sneaks up
and snatches away
all the pain.

I wake.