Ceiling
by Evangeline Flynn, Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC)
Winner, Years 9 – 10, performance poetry
There is a glass ceiling
she said
Stretching above you
above me
And through its crystalline sheets
sharp silvers of hope
dance in fragmented chaos;
dipping and darting in stabbing throes
It gleams in tattered glory of centuries bygone;
we all eventually learn to shift within its paradigm
Taking what’s ours, lowering our heads,
hunching in gaunt groups, daring not to look up
I gaze through the glimmering gloam hazing the palatial cage
Revering lustrous pillars silently skimming ivory arcs
Beholding glacial beams culminating in swift spires
Its cold beauty is an illusion,
she said
Nothing more than a glossy maze of insidious ideals
A harrowing hall of funhouse mirrors
A haunted mansion of double standards;
and we are the dust gathering within its labyrinthine walls
It’s cracking
she said
Its bricks are splintering at seams of hypocrisy
Its floors fracturing into frosted shards
There is still the glass ceiling though
I said
Stretching above you
above me
Be courageous
she said
And rise up.
Want to read more poems? Explore the other Years 9 – 10 finalists.