Competition

Second Prize

Surreal Sunset
by Monika Holmwood

The southern ice cap sparkles as the world awakes,
Sending shards of blinding light across Antarctica .
Emperor penguins relax their protective huddle
While a leopard seal hunts in the Ross Sea .
An albatross stirs from its icy nest up high
And flies northward to the island continent.

The Australian bush is in its full morning waltz.
A laughing kookaburra competes with a singing ‘pie,
While a kangaroo and joey graze silently below
Alongside a billabong where a dingo drinks.
Suddenly, a harsh mechanical noise rips through the air.
The albatross takes flight northwards.

The albatross travels across the Arafura Sea to New Guinea .
Here there is a thick black cloud billowing from the land.
Flightless cassowaries flee from their forest homes,
Followed in the air by endangered birds of paradise.
Still the fire burns strong, as the sun shines overhead
And the albatross travels east across the Indian Ocean .

In Mozambique the albatross sees a rhinoceros fall.
A stampede of zebras gallop from the site.
Three are hit and collapse lifeless on the ground.
Flamingoes and cranes run through the spear grass,
Some fall, but the albatross does not stop;
He continues his journey eastward to Brazil .

The albatross circles the edge of the Amazon,
Shocked by the bulldozers, logging trucks and chains,
Taking down tree, shrub, fern and life.
Tapirs, monkeys, and booby-birds are left homeless.
The albatross is tired and hungry; the sun is deep on the horizon
He turns around and flies back to his icy home.

The albatross searches, but his home has gone.
His snow covered ice berg has melted.
Large cracks have formed in the metre deep ice.
The albatross searches for food, but finds nothing.
He looks for his friends, but sees no trace.
Exhausted and confused he sits alone as the sun sets.

Third Prize

Sunset
by Monika Holmwood

As the sun rises,
Kookaburras herald the new day.
The eucalyptus leaves dance in the cool morning breeze,
Dappled by the morning sun radiating from the vivid blue sky.
Baby platypus’ play in the shallows of the still billabong waters.
A brown snake, camouflaged in the dry undergrowth, eyes an innocent hopping mouse.
Harsh mechanical sounds cut through the bird’s song, and a stench of destruction overpowers the essence of the bush.
Animals flee, utterly confused, as tree after tree is bulldozed, and thick, heavy chains grind cross the fragile earth.
Roots are replaced by footings; the tree line is displaced by skyline; green dissolves to grey.
The earth’s skin is suffocated by cloying concrete.
Her beauty hidden underneath an endless labyrinth
Of tunnels and roads; ignorance and neglect.
The bush has gone.
The sun is setting.