Rhapsodomancy

 

You're so light

(Effervescence carved into calculated agony-euphoria-love-hate-caffeine-highs)

I swear you must have

Sparrow bones,

All fragile wrists and delicate

Ankles that flick as you move, dancing-screaming-tasting-running, as if you want to

Lift off the ground with each step.

Blowing bubbles that float like bitter chalk-drawn-desperate-sick-smiling laughter in the empty air.

Rude.

You trace your frame against the edge of nature

Leaving heartbeat trails along unreachable-untouchable-forbidden treetops

A starlit-step-toe-flick

Striking out at the fragile things. Words.

Your heart lies somewhere between perfection and dust. And while your soul is

A sight to behold, you'll shatter at the blink of an eye.

Soft feathered veins run beneath

Echolalia.

The wings on your back are not

There but I swear I can see

Eternity through them, painted in claret-off-white-firefly-discord.

Perhaps it hasn't stopped.

I-you-we-they must be lying,

Obsolete rumours that hold the stars apart,

And you know it,

Hiding entire galaxies under your skin

Winged shadows burning aorta walls as a last

Resistance against a trembling instinct to live-live-live.

There are a hundred-million-billion-unforgivable

Reasons why you shouldn't be

Able to soar, but you only need

A single excuse to defy gravity.

Nothing could stop you from flying.

 

Second Runner-up (Secondary)

Rebecca Hawkes

Rangi Ruru Girls' School, Christchurch

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