Competition

Third Prize

No Longer
by Sarah Merry
Melton West, Melbourne, Vic

Once,
you made me
tachycardic,
had me flying
through the clouds
and dancing
with stars,
dreaming of maybes
and could bes,
a heart full
and racing.
Now,
I am dead inside.
I went into cardiac arrest
only to learn
that you
no longer care enough
to ask me
if my heart is broken
and if
you should fix it.
So here I remain,
broken
and half dead,
waiting
for someone to come along
and mend
my broken heart,
pretending I don’t care
that it won’t
be you.

Highly Commended

Nest of Notes
by Rosie Maguire
East Brisbane, Qld

There once was a man, a quiet man.
All except for his guitar.
All day, all night you hear him play.
Notes sigh and swoop into the night sky.

He sat under a tree while he played,
Cradling his guitar like a child.
One night he looked up and couldn't see his notes.
Only a nest in the tree.
But he could still hear them.

Where are my notes?
My beautiful music is gone, he cries.
He leaves his instrument and goes out looking,
Lonely without it, his fingers itch for the
Strings of this beautiful blue guitar.

Then he looks up, as if for the first time.
He sees the tree, a bird and a nest,
Not made of twigs and leaves.
It is made entirely of his notes.

"Mister Bird, may I please have my notes back?"
But you can still hear them, says the bird,
And they make my eggs happy.
Please let them stay.
I will sing along to your lovely song.

The man thinks his notes don't look so lonely now
All jumbled as a nest,
Hinged and hooked together,
Flats and sharps holding hands.
Okay, he says.

Every time the quiet man walks near a tree
He hears the beautiful music of nature.
He joins in and sings and plays his notes home.
It is as the world should be.