Congratulations to Isabella Treacy, who wins the Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry for the second year, and to Yilong She, who receives a Commendation. First, some of Isabella's winning portfolio.
A Funeral for your
Lies
and an Exhumation of
my Truths
You could call this a
funeral
for your Lies,
and an
exhumation
of my Truths.
I was buried next to
this unseemly secret
six feet deep with
the roots.
Lord knows I should
still be
pushing daisies.
You took my
life
but it's not the end.
I was put in the
ground
and now I'm back from
the dead.
You should have
known
that something which
was never living
can never really die.
I’m getting tired of
crawling all the way.
I've had enough!
Isn’t it obvious?
Holding the pain like
I’m holding my breath
Now that I’m on
trial.
I won’t be beaten by
this,
Not yet.
And it’s my whole
heart
Being tried and
tested,
But it’s mine!
I won’t be buried or
burned this time.
Who’s the equivocator
now?
Keres, help me not to
forget,
While I’m on trial,
Wait until the beast
comes out.
Oh you fool, there
are rules,
I’m coming for you.
You can try to outrun
this scourger
but you can’t
escape.
Holy water cannot
save you now.
Now your reckoning
begins
and La Pelona will
lead you
to your yawning
grave.
I took a journey to
the unknown
And I came back
changed,
I can feel it in my
bones.
It feels like I've
been away for an era
but nothing changed
at all.
Say goodbye to who I
was.
You told me to calm
down
and asked why my
heart had turned rotten?
It still gets my
blood boiling.
And now I look at
you
through crimson
tinted glasses
while I stay
stuck in the crossfire
of my own thoughts.
La Pelona and I walk
side by side
over your spoiled,
evil spirit.
You left a deep scar
which I still try to
bleach out.
I’ll dig a grave for
your lies
with a beating heart
of stone,
and I’ll never
spare
my sympathy
for someone like you.
Kitchen floors and
Saints at doors
How could I have
known
what I was about to
trade.
All I knew was that I
saw a way
and you saw the worst
in me.
As I reached for the
clouds
you made sure that
I
would return
to your weightless
embrace.
I still search for a
reason
not to end up in
denial,
like those long
summer nights
stolen away as the
moon falls.
Despite the lies you
bound to me
I
still love you.
But, I won't wait
anymore,
for the parts of you
that are never on
show.
Yet, my heart
yearns
to lay on the kitchen
floor
under you’re
unfeeling gaze
as moonlight paints
your face.
And every
morning
when you wake,
I'll still love
those
mangled bits of you.
Mine Forever
I was there,
When you fell from
the clouds.
When I found you,
I saw a place
like paradise in your eyes,
then I knew that my
end would come soon.
Those modest saying
that meant so much to you,
with me they’ve never
quite got through.
I’ve always needed
bigger words.
I was so full of love
that I could hardly breathe.
There isn’t a
language for the things I feel.
It was such a relief
and a horror
To be known so
perfectly,
So completely.
You were the one who
made me believe,
that I could fly
again.
Now we’re a story
that I don’t want to read.
Loving you was easy
when I balanced on a knife's edge.
Now your spirit
follows me wherever I go,
and I still hear your
melody from those days
as you haunt me in the night.
When the sun comes up
and I go blind,
For a moment, I can
blot out the memory of your face
and forget every
line, every wrinkle.
But, if forever gets
too lonely
I’ll meet you where
our souls
Meet our bones,
Because in my mind
You’re mine forever.