Competition Entry

WINNING POEM

I don’t believe in Trust,
I don’t believe in Love,
I don’t believe in Possible,
I don’t believe in Promises,
I don’t believe in Magic,
Or Wishes.
So What’s worth believing in?

I don’t believe in friendship,
I don’t believe in words of comfort.
So what’s worth believing in?

Fairy tales and gossip,
Laughter and happiness,
I don’t believe in being free!

So WHAT is worth believing in?
I wonder and wonder,
From day after day I look top and under,
Is it something big or small,
I can’t find anything quite so tall,

Then I look side to side,
And there my answer is,
My Family, that’s worth believing in!

WINNING POEM

Curiosity,
Curiosity killed the cat, so they say,
I lay in my chair one restless day,
Then I learnt curiosity hit me like a sudden wild waterfall.

Questions whirled through my head,
A violent breeze of fascination and fantasy,
What if on another land there was another family,
In another world different to what we call reality.

A square planet built on dreams,
Inside them, twenty mysterious families,
Dark nights or wooshy trees,
A tropical paradise or ruins of a gloomy landscape.

Feelings not real,
Just mums with clueless faces,
Daydreaming dads in airy fairy places.
One big mix up to me and you.

Grannies just blank,
Grandfathers plain as fish in a tank,
What can I say about my imagination,
It runs away with me like the thoughts of all of our nation.

WINNING POEM

Dear Mijo (Dear Son):
You were an angel in my hands,
but I must have dropped you somewhere
between zero and eighteen,
when your smile turned sad
and you spent more time
underneath your earphones and your covers,
and I had to take a fourth shift at Friendly’s
just to make sure you could buy
tomorrow’s lunch.

Somewhere
between zero and eighteen,
when you learned how to read,
how to ride a bike, how to drive,
and I kept my phone on while working,
but you never called. College came
knocking on the front door, but
you turned it away in favor of
a road trip with your rock band friends.
I didn’t like it. You didn’t like me.

After eighteen years, we parted
like waves who did not know
which side of the moon we faced,
nor did we know if we were strangers
or rather acquaintances. I still
kept my phone on while working, but you
never called. Maybe you didn’t know.
I said it every night when I had you,
then I lost you somewhere in the sea.
I love you, Mijo.
Your Mami

WINNING POEM

Here’s to the one who’s never really there
Whose love for the sick is ever so dear
You must leave before light and return at night

Your face in the kitchen a distant memory
Sink full of untouched dishes and dirty cutlery
Silence haunting lonely hours that seem like a century

I try not to let it get to me
Still oh, how it does
It comes to me in seas of misery and hate

But,

But sometimes, just sometimes,
My eyes flutter open and you’re carrying me to bed
I’m sorry I left you alone, you say, trapped in eternal replay

The whiff of antiseptic lingers in your embrace
The cotton doctor coat soft and clean, swaying lightly
My body rocking steadily, your arms sturdy and holding me tightly

The mattress jiggles as your petite body perches on the edge
Never realizing I’m listening as you tell me ’bout your day
Your sweet voice a rescuing hand in that sea of misery and hate

A click and the world behind my eyelids go dark
I love you; you silently whisper
And everything’s okay

The dark lonely hours are long forgotten
I no longer drown in misery waters
Everything is forgiven, the days passed alone dismissed

Dark memories come clean
Revealing that last light in Pandora’s box
I love you too, mother.

Runner Up. No prize… but well done!

I know sometimes I break your last nerve,
Always ending up regretting it later,
When you’re not here, it’s a piece missing from my heart,
And in times like these, I count the seconds when we’re apart,

I don’t know why I didn’t appreciate you when I was younger,
Life wouldn’t have been the same as it is now,
All these years and minutes making me who I am,
And in the first time in forever I’m very grateful for that plan.

There’s nothing compared to a relationship between a mother and a daughter,
Even when the times were rough I always thought I’d hate you,
But now I realise that I’m very wrong and sorry,
I’ll love you forever and always so you don’t have to worry.

Runner Up. No prize… but well done!

My mum is always there for me
She makes my world so bright
She turns darkness into sunshine
And makes everything alright
I hope this poem will let her know
Just what she means to me
I love her more than all the planets
And deeper than the sea

the person who gets me up while I’m yawning.

The one who always makes me feel happy,
When I’m feeling sad and snappy.

You’re the reason I love you so,
Especially when you are making pizza dough.

Always with me, even when you’re not,
we’ll always be tied together, just like a knot.

I know you’ll always be there for me, when times are tough,
even if the journey of life, is a little bit rough.

You’re the reason I carry on, in this weird world we live in,
even though living in it makes my head spin.

I love You Daddy, I really do,
that’s why, if I had to choose a Dad, I’d choose you.

This poem was a Runner Up. No prize… but well done!

A title that means a lot
Being there to care
To love
To comfort
Mom, I love you a lot, words can’t explain
You’re nice
You have spice
You help me when I need it
I love you
So thank you for being there
For yummy food
Thank you, said with major gratitude
For being the one and only you

This poem was a Runner Up. No prize… but well done!

Mum,
she says everything’s going to be okay
Mum,
she cuddles me with love and affection
Mum,
she helps all the time
Mum,
I wouldn’t want my mum any other way.
because she’s my mum and I love her

This poem was a Runner Up. No prize… but well done!

M is for Mum
so kind and so good
She would give me the world
if she could