Poetry_Master

Kirsti Whalen (Yr 12, Epsom Girls Grammar School, Auckland)

Chain of Fools
we are green weeds
hot boxed in Saturday night blues
falling off chairs and spinning
while Shaun smokes cigars.
we are McDonald’s for breakfast
traipsing into his hash-browned cures
forgetting the diet for the ball, for the boy
who smirks and lurks down the road,
and when we leave the watered-down orange juice
on the roof of the car, we laugh and swerve away.
we are the Mothers, lecturing ourselves
about liver failure and smoke clouding our lungs,
but listening is forgotten as plans for next Friday roll;
we don’t mind the texts that make no sense
‘coz everyone knows you’re smashed
and you couldn’t mean I Love You.
we are the peace of the floor –
under the table and into the night, we
chunder in the gardens and reach for
more Absinthe, more Bernardino, another
quick shot. forget the bible and thirty pieces
of silver – that’s not enough for Vodka Cruisers
so we rummage in more purses and snigger at them
Thou Shalt Steal.
we are parties shaded loosely as movie nights
so yes never swaps to no, but though we say
we’re sorry (for laughter and blood shot eyes,
for stains that mottle the carpeted floor
and apologies many times defied)
we are next Saturday night.

2008 – Best Poem Winner: Manon Revuelta (Epsom Girls Grammar School) – Flossan and Jetsam
2008 – Best Lyric Winner: Sonya Clark (Karamu High School) – Mrs. Potts
Best Poem Runner-up : Claire Sorrenson (Takapuna Grammar School) – Fooling around
Best Poem Runner-up : Finn Teppett (Wellington College) – If, only.
Best Poem Runner-up : Nalin Samountry (Tamatea High School) – The Parameters of Refugeeism and Flight
Best Poem Runner-up : Ish Doney (St Andrews College) – The World Instead
Best Poem Runner-up : Carlos Carbonatto-Bowkett (Wellington College) – Purple
Best Lyric Runner-up : Saxon Adams (St Andrews College) – Downtown Bazaar
Best Lyric Runner-up : Cara Chimirri (Rangi Ruru Girls’ School)
Best Lyric Runner-up : Jimmy Garden (Wellington College) – All you can eat
Best Lyric Runner-up : Taylor Hughson (Wellington College) – Molly
Best Lyric Runner-up : Jennifer Yeh (St Cuthbert’s College) – A pinker shade of blue
Commended entrants: Poem category In addition to the finalists, seven entries were commended by the judge of this year’s Best Poem category. Read their names here.

Selina Powell (Wellington High School)

Ball Game

When I play soccer in the backyard,
Pete leans over the fence, opens his palms and says
Football!

Glint-hair, glint-eyed
snaggle tooth, Pete from Liverpool.

That’s not how you play football,
Pete says.

How I play football is
on a field once a rubbish dump,
dodging pillows in the hallway,
dribbling to school, and racing
buses at the traffic lights.

Pete has a glow around him, sun circling
over his shoulder. He asks
Where’s the grace? Where’s the dancing?
I squint at Pete, the fireball football caught in my eye.

Some days, I can only answer with
flat feet, elbows, tongue out to one side,
ugly girl
playing beautiful game. But I look forward to

others, when I am around the cushions
seamlessly, through the chair legs
SCORE
As the sun sets in my backyard I loop a header up, up
down to rest yin and yang on my foot.

Along comes Pete, hands to heaven
Football! He says, game? So

we play, and I win as easy as
one pirouette past Pete, two cheeky tackles and
three goals between the flowerpots.
I am glowing light
footed, Girl, you can move

Pete says, Best dance I ever had
head shaking, glint grinning,
Pete from
over the fence.

Guanting Liu (St Cuthbert’s College, Auckland)

Under the trees

As we waited for a ride
in our awkward school uniforms,
we shuffled light conversation back and forth.
A lorry drove past and I commented on how trucks
are a symbol of male dominance in society.
And you laughed
so I decided to shut up about Thelma and Louise.
And the night sky was like a silk tapestry,
the first stars emerging shyly, discreetly, like a first crush.
The decaying leaves squished under our leather stiff soled shoes as we
laughed over trivial matters
like the American presidential election.
And time passes.

• Lauren Brazier of Paraparaumu College: 'A Pair of Feet'
• Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle of Western Springs College: 'Unframed'
• Cara Chimirri of Rangi Ruru Girls' School: 'Passage Over Water'
• Sonya Clark of Karamu High School: 'Mrs. Potts'
• Toni Duder of Epsom Girls Grammar School: 'Stolen'
• Genevieve Fowler of Christchurch Girls' High School: 'Insomnia'
• Jimmy Garden of Wellington College: 'All you can eat'
• Alisha Lewis of Epsom Girls Grammar School: 'Traces'
• Amber Watson of Aparima College: 'Instruments of Cliquedom'
• Jennifer Yeh of St Cuthbert's College: 'A pinker shade of blue'

'Mrs Potts' by Sonya Clark also won the Best Lyric prize.

'Passage Over Water' by Cara Chimirri; 'All You Can Eat' by Jimmy Garden; and 'A pinker shade of blue' by Jennifer Yeh were also finalists in the Best Lyric category.

Russell Kale (Karamu High School)

HISTORY

Russ Kale is the third denizen of the amber sunset.
Russ Kale is pushing the boundaries of the underwater experience.
He is significantly monotonous, but sleeps in class anyway.
Russ Kale has broken the nose of society to spite its face.
Russ Kale has yet to arrive at a conclusion.
He lives in a cocoon of ice-coated steel.
Russ dangles from rooftops, watches palm fronds and Amelie
projected onto grey-cloud screens.
Russ Kale knows where to get the best seat in the stratosphere.
Russ Kale does not return his videos on time.
Russ Kale becomes distorted at the edges,
Just past the point where the volleyballers
Play on the beaches of the island,
And hot-air balloons mark the road.

Jessie Hendy (Taradale High School)

My Poetry Teacher

Melissa Chen (Epsom Girls Grammar School)

Travel log

drive, you say
drive me somewhere
high above the world – grab your keys
let’s go. i want

only this
the open road
unfolding possibility, your
warm body in the front seat –
the rolling

horizon
give me unfinished
sentences and ravenous hunger for
other things, at every abandoned gas station
we could take communion of

two dollar crackers
and music, you say –
dance harlequinades and sew
checkers over sleeping lawns at midnight
uptown, the beautiful

undiscovered land.
let’s change our names
become enigmas, become
objects and travel from hand to hand
aging slowly and alone together, let’s

find home through untravelled driveways and
crawl across jungles to a room of our own
between signpost legs
the cheapest motel
and voices falling through the dark of
mezzanine floored parkways.

David Seaman (Taradale High School, Napier)

Wrapped in logic

I wonder what it would be like
if you came in test pot size
or A5:
Just to taste.

Try you on my walls,
a frame for the sky.

If you don't fit
it might be easier to store you
under a shelf.

Sienna Smale-Jackson (Otago Girls' High School, Dunedin)

Eugene

my brother is
in the bathtub.
he is playing with
his heart's plumbing.
he puts the plunger
onto his chest
and pushes down,
the plunger sucking
itself upward,
releasing the clog
of clotted emotions.

when he gets out
there's a red, rashy
circle in the middle
of his ribcage;
all the body's pipes
pulled too close to
the surface.
his lips stretch up into
a sanguine smile,
unconcealed, open-hearted.