Competition

Highly Commended &
RT Edwards Mentorship Award

Winter in Ipswich
by Robert Bos
Bundamba, Qld

We must have left the borders unguarded.
With cold affrontery, under the cover of darkness,
a bleak winter's day snuck in.
A foreign asylum seeker from Melbourne?

We learned southern body language,
arms defensively hugged in front.
Should we now call our awkward attire
Q-jumpers perhaps, to state disapproval?

Sign the petition. All future winters
to be processed offshore. In Tasmania.

Highly Commended

Memory
by Robert Bos
Bundamba, Qld

An anointing of moonlight blesses a sea
content in its tranquil slumber .
The waters are broken in a flash
of twisting, silvery strength
and the shock of its splash
ripples outward,
chilling the fringes of consciousness
like a long locked-away memory.

Highly Commended

To a Friend
by Caitlin Prouatt
Yamanto, Qld

And you’re right when you scream so joyfully, Emilie –
You’re absolutely right!
Like the long-haired man smoking the cigarette,
Chattering,
Laughing,
Because he isn’t killing himself at the moment
Is he?

And the tall, pale, mop-haired book man,
Sitting hunched upon the steps
Becomes a person –
Because he drops his cigarette when we approach,
Acknowledges our excitement with a grin and
We know he is very much
Alive

But I have found another ‘we’ –

So it is difficult not to scream so joyfully –
As I tell you about the magic
And you listen,
Oh, you listen!
And it dances all about us as we
Inhale the musty book-scents,
Dusty book-scents,
All so sweet –

I shan’t scare you away,
Though I like you such a lot –
And perhaps you care for me,
Just a dot.