Competition

Second Prize

Pink Balloon
by Brett Dionysius
Woodend, Qld

(i)
Death surprises in summer like the two dollar birds
Who winged in one morning & shored up residence
On the power lines, Their claws hooked around steel
Cables, these natives mimicked dread symbols; tiny
Blue-green eagles gripped twisted lightning bolts, as
If their dark, historical caricature would conquer all.
It was signs all day. Black clad mourners filed down
To the church’s pulpit, voiceless, as a seam of pure
Silence crystallising in their souls’ rich deposits. As
Everyone found their station, the process of living
Began; words painted what their eyes could not see,
Tears wrote across their cheek slates & were rubbed
Out again, just in time for the little lunch bell. When
The dollar birds left, the sky raised its pink balloon.

Third Prize

Today in New York
by Kira McPherson
Clarkson, WA

Even though you are no longer
asking about my day let me
tell you that I woke up and went back to bed
with a fever did shopping and forgot milk

so nothing really happened
the kind of day you love the empty space
to fill in because
something must have happened

Even though I had a fever
in bed and one ticket for South Pacific
to watch the happiest war around
and I bought bagels you don’t know but
I eat bagels now and sat sweaty in bed
watching King Kong wondering

how does it feel to be on top of the Empire State building
with Ann Darrow in your arms screaming
like a burst of confetti and

one day that could be me
the building, I mean 
when I am not so busy having
false starts and the flu and
a backdated movie collection so

even when nothing happens
I could explain how today
an ape crawled up my side

and telling you this
would almost be something.