Competition

Second Prize

Final
by Vanessa Page
Rosewood, Qld

Coming over the seven mile bridge
the Bremer River was still kissing the road,
the contents of its belly hung like scarecrow
detritus, out on the fence posts to dry

You’d lain in state like a crumpled love note
for bleached hours after the waters receded
deep in a row of quiescent post-wars,
ants working round you like a bicycle chain

When I arrived there, you were softened
by the end of day’s orange-sherbet glow
your gaping nightgown flannel like a husk
and your hair as sudden as a final wing-beat

In the kitchen, birthright was already placing
its claim on your crystal set, cutting words 
with bee-sting mouths and shaking out the
sum of you like an embroidered sampler

I pick up your hand like a beaten stone
and even now, broken and gone, you fix all this.

Third Prize

Flood
by Brett Dionysius
Woodend, Qld

It spewed forth all manner of hell’s fierce creatures.
So, trapdoor spiders the breadth of teacup saucers,
Their silk-lined manholes abandoned, aquaplaned
Across Myall Creek’s swollen brown abdomen. Like
Dismembered gorillas’ hands pawing at the spokes of
His Hanimex dragster, they tried to attach themselves
As if part of the structure of a Halloween celebration.
Next, centipedes rolled in the water, touching the lane
Ropes of his pedals like unschooled swimmers twisting
Into last place. Then, brown snakes, athletically prone
Timed their heats to perfection & touched the wall of
His juvenile imagination. Caught in this deadly morass,
He barely reached the top step when he was seconded;
Cleaning up cat shit on his mother’s flooded linoleum.