Competition

First Prize

On the Edge
by Kirsty McCormack

Standing on the edge of the large crevasse of darkness
As the blustery wind of voices rushes around me, swaying
Forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.
Voices swarming me, filling my head with their thoughts
Cruel onlookers with crooked teeth and sharp eyes
“Jump” “Join us” “Darkness is your friend” “Jump!”
Sympathetic, distant eyes and soft delicate reaching hands
“Stay” “You are safe here” “We can help you” “Stay!”
Forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.

The ledge crumbles impatiently, awaiting decisions
The darkness looms so hollow, empty, numbing
Promising to stop the feeling and pain
Backwards, backwards, backwards, backwards “Jump!”
The land looks so rough, challenging, dangerous
But glimmering hope beyond its tricky horizon
Forwards, forwards, forwards, forwards “Stay!”
Forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.

Time has evaporated from this deserted place
Seconds, hours, days, years swirling away into nothingness
Alone in the middle of a desolate desert
On the shaky ledge accompanied by the voices of the wind.
Forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.
The gale taking over my body and soul, drifting away
Pushing and pulling, mangling and manipulating
Forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards.

I close my eyes, hold still in the wind
And breathe out its evil manipulative fumes.
Hold on tight and hoping for the best,
I step away from the ledge and fight for the horizon.
Forwards.

Second Prize

My Dreams
by Kirsty McCormack

I BROKE THEM
My dreams
And I watched them shatter
Like glass on collision flying in all directions,
Cutting my hands as I tried to pick up the pieces.
Time stomped on unwilling to stop
As glass melted to liquid
And slithered away, the liquid of my dreams.

Crimson red
The colour of my dreams
Thick and oozing everywhere
Staining the walls of my brain where my dreams
Slipped from as the wall shattered like the glass of my dreams.
Deep red fluid like mercury
Red liquid metal clawing up the tube
Rising metal.

They crunched.
The metal of my dreams
Like thin aluminium under hand
Like steel against an immovable pillar aside life’s path
A path that slithered away like the dreams
That slipped from the walls of glass
Of my dreams.

My dreams.
I broke them.
Had one too many
On a swervy highway
Hit a powerpole, blood oozing from my cracked skull
And the glass of my windscreen flying everywhere

My future, my dreams.
I broke them.