Student Poetry Competition 2026 Finalist: The strawberry girl

The strawberry girl

by Madeleine Noonan, Tintern Grammar
Years 9 – 10 Ekphrastic Poetry Finalist

‘The Strawberry Girl’ by Nicolino Calyo (c. 1840)

 

I will always remember the girl from my adolescence

Whisking through the wind, it was almost like she floated

Effortlessly

Click by click, I watched her walk

To and from my mother’s stall each day

Always leaving with a basket of strawberries

 

I will always remember the girl from my adolescence

Whisking through the wind. It was almost like she floated

Effortlessly

Day by day, I watched her fade

Always looking like she was running from something

Until the day she never returned

And all I had was a fleeting glimpse of her face

The strawberry girl