Student Poetry Competition 2024: Year 7-8 Winners

The Stolen Ones
Whisked away forever,
An echo in the dark.
Tread lightly through the houses,
Tiptoe through the park.
Deep breath in,
A whisper on your skin.
Deep breath out,
Taken from your kin.
The overwhelming darkness,
The fear in our bones.
Toss us around like ragdolls,
Ignoring our pained groans.
Fed food that’s not ours,
Stuffed into itchy clothes.
Treated like servants,
The only hope implodes.
But then, a story,
Molly and her girls.
Told from person to person,
Listen as it unfurls.
Stealth like snakes,
They slithered through the night,
Followed the fence,
Got away without a fight
The escape angered the captors,
And now havoc rains on us all.
Feel the sharp lashes of the whip,
Like the autumn leaves in Fall.
Sharp pain across the back,
Stopping all space and time.
Feel the rhythm setting in,
No one else to witness this crime.
But then, the one,
The one who returned.
Captured again,
Her lesson she learned.
Clutching her hand,
Being dragged away.
Screams of pain,
Nothing to do but pray.
Pray to gods that we don’t know,
Forced upon us by a cruel hand.
Overtaking our lives,
Stamped onto us like a brand.
Shown to the world,
Told to be ashamed.
“It’s for the better”
The untrue sentence they claimed.
Taking away our humanity,
Taking away the ones we love.
Taking away everything left in us,
Flying away like a graceful dove.
All we want is to go home,
Lay in the arms of our mothers.
Fly into the embrace of our sisters,
Cry on the shoulders of our brothers.
But nothing will come for us,
The ones who were taken away.

There’s an old chair,
In my grandpa’s backyard.
Next to the orange tree;
or what remains after years of disregard.
Used to be new, a golden shiny trophy,
until years of stories,
many different adventures,
and various categories.
The first year,
nursery rhymes and fairytales.
The second,
A story on whales.
The many after,
dashing princes and roaring dragons,
cute little toadstools and twirling imps,
gnomes and elves pulling wagons.
My grandpa and I,
him reading aloud.
In the clear blue sky,
we made shapes from a cloud.
I thought it would never end,
The stories were my life,
the light to my dark days…
then the cut of a knife.
Her purse tucked in her arm,
mum comes rushing down the hallway,
a scared look on her face,
as she shoves us out the doorway.
Two seconds later,
We’re in our best clothes.
Tears streaming down our faces,
The world slows…
Carried out in a closed casket,
the mourning sea of black,
my grandpa’s many friends,
their faces all slack.
Years of friendship,
of love,
of stories,
sadness a mourning dove.
Like the end of a story,
But is it the end?
As I go back to my grandpa’s chair,
its seat needing a mend.
I miss him so much.
I crumple to my knees.
The fault line rippling in my chest.
my fists in a tight squeeze.
Each story must end,
an inevitable event.
but as I look at the chair,
still standing, despite the dents.
I’m overcome by a feeling of awe,
for this chair and its bumps,
surviving for many years,
my stomach jumps.
Cause when a story ends,
a new one starts.

I kill the hours from the rising of the sun,
to the closure of curtains at sunset.
The time when daily pursuits are done
And, the moon rules over my domain,
To the end of its dark reign.

Presented in ebbs and flows,
abruptly halting at clock’s cruel chime.
Awakened by the harsh call of crows
I yearn for a blissful nightfall,
I yearn to be wrapped in its tranquil shawl.

Time skates and slithers slyly,
circling its unsuspecting prey.
I beg you never to skulk away shyly
Waiting, watching and wishing for the tide to turn,
From sun-kissed days to a wintry burn.

I crumble with fallen civilisations past,
grappling and grasping at their lost memory.
I now fly my flag half-mast
For heavenly cities forgotten by my generation,
May now be invisible to the hour’s veneration.

Adrift days blowing in the wind
As these final hours become thinned
I am toughened. Am I thick-skinned?

A story left untold, I wonder why
A truth may just look as false as lie
At the end of time, what is left but to die?

Modern day’s poison is Time,
Time is modern day’s poison.
The toxin may taste sublime
How hard will my forgottens fall,
If I do not heed their clarion call?

My grip is failing,
Falling, flailing,
From the clouds above

I can’t remember how to smile,
Or to use my imagination,
I can’t remember how to laugh,
Everything is evaporation
And I’m sorry Fae,
I tried to keep you in the back of my mind,
I tried,
But know you’re rotting

And I’m sorry Fae,
I hoped you would stay,
But you simply flew away,
Like I was unworthy

I’m sorry Fae,
Children nowadays,
No longer put their faith in you beautiful, twisted realities,
But I do,
I’m still holding on to you

What happened to the never-ending sea?
What happened to “talking to the bees”?
What happened to childish imagination?
What happened to all of our creations?
What happened to “I’m never growing older”?
Peter promised me he’d come someday,
I’m already 12 and my Hogwarts letter never came

Did you lie to me?
Will you come back to me?
Is it my fault that I can’t hold on?

I’m sorry Fae,
I’ve found the real reality,
You tried to hide me from.

Written poetry 

• Rihaab Afzal, Minaret College – If I Were a Class Teacher
• Amaira Rampal Arani, St Margaret’s Berwick Grammar – Melancholia
• Bethany, Harkaway Hills College – A Mesmerising Murderer
• Lorelei Corrales, Harkaway Hills Collage – The Ocean of Awe
• Elizabeth Du, Lauriston Girls’ School – In Awe of Earth
• Maria Duque, Harkaway Hills College – This is our World
• Isabelle Gray, Ballarat Grammar – The Curse of the Kings Canyon
• Amelia Lam, Camberwell Girls Grammar School – Poetry
• Olivia McCumstie, Harkaway Hills College – Autumn Message
• Ariane Neoh, Lauriston Girls’ School – A Rosy Story
• Lily Ouyang, Lauriston Girls’ School – Hope is Not the Thing with Feathers
• Olivia Pirie, Mount Evelyn Christian School – Wonders of the Void
• Sachee, Bacchus Marsh Grammar – With You
• Shelby Santospirito, St Michael’s Grammar School – Floating Figures
• Aanvi Santhanam, Balwyn High School – Darkness Consumes
• Benita Soosairaj, Harkaway Hills College – A Starry Night
• Elizabeth Ulmer, Lauriston Girls’ School – United We Stand
• Ziya Zhou, Lauriston Girls’ School – The Moon Dancer

Performance poetry 

n/a