Competition

First Prize

Tiaro Shack
by Julie Lynch
Kholo, Qld

The geckoes are drinking your port from the old oak keg
The wasp is hiding in the beading gap beside your bed
if I push a small pencil in there, he'll noisy buzz it back out
The swallows are nesting under the iron window awning
flying through the shack daily
Gator lies under the bed quivering
dreaming of rabbits to chase
The shack is full of life

Only your empty Blundstones are soundless

Second Prize

Disconnected Grammar
by Sue Bailey
Bellbowrie, Qld

like bookends we sit
apart
and trace cold hearts
with pensive fingers
on sweating glass –

nothing to say
condensation takes
all our attention

noise ricochets
and circles us
prowling
but the silence
between us
stretches
like a bold dash –
is it too late?
the plural 'we'
is no longer
inept stumbling attempts
to cross
the chasm
our vocabulary of argument
hangs like dust particles
waiting for memory's light
to make an 'us' again;
but
we remain
stressed syllables,
you and I.

Third Prize

Evening Scene
by Caitlin Prouatt
Yamanto, Qld

The sundown clouds
are diplodocus
ribs,
and the heart-moon
blurs them
archaeologically –

a coincidental black cat
makes
me
laugh.